Before I die
by cutieismynam
Summary: Lily Evans makes a list with the title: Ten things I wanna before i die... The next day she doesn't remember making the list, but James Potter has gotten his hands on it. He promises himself to help Lily make all her wishes come true, but it's getting mor
1. Chapter 1

Told ya i write it

Lily Evans was nearly finished with her homework. She had written two essays for Professor Slughorn, one for Professor Schnee and one for Professor Dumbledore. The teachers were always giving her extra assignments, not knowing the others did too. Two seconds after she'd written the last word, her best friend Mary came in and interrupted her.

It looked like she had been running, because her long, blonde hair was a mess, and her brown eyes were wide open like she had something very important to tell. Of course, knowing Mary, Lily was sure it was nothing. Mary had to breathe a couple of times before she could say anything.

"Look, Lily!" she said excitedly. "Look what I've made!" She held a piece of parchment in her hand, and she gave it to Lily. It was a list: "10 things I wanna do in life…". 

'Yep, it was nothing' thought Lily. But she didn't want to ruin it for her friend, who was now practically jumping up and down, waiting for a comment.

"Wow, how great!" said Lily, trying to sound as optimistic and excited as she could. She handed the list back to Mary and started to put away the books on the table.

The same night Lily was lying in her bed. It was raining outside, and she was listening to the soft sound of the rain against the window. She was so exhausted, yet she couldn't sleep. After lying awake for half an hour she decided to get up and do something. She jumped out of bed and looked around her. Mary was sleeping in the bed beside her, Bella had fallen on the floor again and Holly was snoring loudly.

Quietly, not to wake the others, she made her way to the door and tip-toed downstairs to the common room. It was empty, of course, as it was the middle of the night and it was a school-day tomorrow. Not knowing what else she could do in a dark room all by herself, she found a piece of parchment and started to scribble on it. The first thing that came to her mind was the list that Mary had brought. "10 things I wanna do in life…" She started writing. It couldn't hurt, and there was nothing else to do, so why not?

The list was done in twenty minutes. She had to really think about some of the things there. Some of the things were things she wanted to do to overcome her fears, some of them were things she probably would never do, and some were things she could do tomorrow if she wanted to. She put the pen and parchment down. She was so tired she could hardly see her own hand before her. She wrote her name on the bottom, put a spell on the list and fell asleep on the couch.

James Potter was up early, as he always was. The others would always complain that he woke them, so he tried his hardest to be quiet and left the room. In the stairs he bumped into a seventh-year, Frank Marlon, who didn't look quite awake yet. He was coming from the common-room, and warned James:  
"There's someone lying on the couch near the fire, just so you know!" James imagined how he'd found out, and the image was quite amusing. But he managed to stay quiet and thank him for the warning.

Down in the common room James went straight to the couch, of course, to see who was lying there. It was quite a shock for him, because lying there on the bright red couch, fully dressed and with untidy hair was Lily Evans. James stood there for a moment looking at her. 'She is so beautiful', he thought. Then he noticed a piece of parchment lying on the small table in front of her. He picked it up. "Ten things I wanna do in life… by Lily Evans". 'Wow' thought James, who had never thought Lily was the kind of girl to write lists like this. Mary would, maybe, but not Lily.

He looked further down, and saw: "10 – Ride on the back of a Hippogriff." He had to read it twice to be sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. Ride a Hippogriff? That really wasn't her thing. And another thing: that was the only thing written on the parchment. James concluded that she couldn't think of anything else. But if riding a Hippogriff was what she wanted, then that's what she was going to get! When Lily woke up an hour later, she remembered nothing about a list…

The Plan was brilliant. Nothing could screw it up, nothing! During lunch, James excused himself and went to Professor Schnee's office. He knocked three times on the door and waited for the "Come in". It came and James entered the office. Professor Schnee, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, was sitting in his chair behind his desk eating his food. Most of it got caught in hjs large beard, James thought, but he didn't say anything.

"Yes, Mr Potter. What did you want?" asked the professor.

"I was just wondering," said James. "When will we be learning about Hippogriffs, Professor?" He looked at the professor innocently, and he seemed to be buying it.

"Well, Mr Potter. That's not until the end of the year," replied Professor Schnee, obviously surprised that the student who seemed least interested in his subject would take the time to ask him about Hippogriffs.

"Oh," said James, forcing himself to look sad. Professor Schnee couldn't resist his look.

"Well, if you'd like I could move it to tomorrow!"

"Would you?" said James while his eyes lit up again. This was going perfectly. The professor smiled at him.

"Can I ride on one, Professor?" asked James carefully. Professor Schnee looked more sceptically at him. 'Please say yes, please say yes' James was praying inside his head.

"Well, all right then," said Professor Schnee. James thanked him and left for the Great Hall.

The next day there was no rain like the previous days. The sun was shining and the sky was cloudless. 'Just the perfect weather for today' thought James as he was walking down to breakfast with the rest of the Marauders; Sirius, Remus and Peter. Sirius was telling everyone his plans for the day, which were to attend classes and then conquer the giant squid. Remus was silent as usual, and Peter kept one step behind. As they reached the Great Hall James saw Lily making her way to her usual spot by the table. 'She doesn't know what today will bring' James thought as he sat down between Sirius and Remus a couple of seats from Lily. Soon the mail came, and the day had begun.

Her first class was Herbology with the Ravenclaws. She had always liked Herbology, although it was her worst subject next to Care of Magical Creatures. Second class was Transfiguration. The amount of homework was huge; she'd have to stay up all night to get through it all. Unless she wanted to use her entire weekend, which she'd probably end up doing. After Transfiguration she went to the Great Hall to get lunch. Here she met up with Mary, who had chosen Divination and didn't have the same schedule as her. Mary filled her in on all the newest gossip. She listened, but forgot again as soon as they left the Great Hall. This was a normal day of Lily's life. After lunch Mary's schedule said Potions and Lily's said Care of Magical Creatures, so they split up and went in different directions.

James came to class early, just to see that the Hippogriffs were actually there. He was relieved when he saw a great beast with a bird's head and a horse's body. It was just as he had pictured it would be. Big, grey and… ugly. He had also read two books about Hippogriffs, and had learned that he had to bow before getting close to one. This was all very boring. The good part was, Lily was involved. The professor was early too, and James went to talk to him.

"Professor, this is great," he said, lying a bit but not entirely.

"I'm glad you think so," replied Professor Schnee. He was eating again, and most of the food was in his beard as usual. 'No wonder he's so thin' thought James while laughing inside. 'He doesn't eat because none of the food makes it into the mouth'. He had to struggle to keep a straight face.

The bell rang and other students began to arrive. Lily was one of the first to arrive, of course, seeing as she was never late for anything. 'She's perfect' thought James. He had admitted to himself as early as second year that he had a giant crush on her, and it just wouldn't go away. The problem was that she didn't like him back.

As soon as all the students had arrived, Lily raised her hand.

"Why are we learning about Hippogriffs now, Professor? We're not supposed to learn about them until the end of the year!"

Professor Schnee glanced briefly at James before replying, "Change of plans, Hippogriffs had to be learned about today."

Lily didn't seem satisfied with the answer, and was just about to say more when Professor Schnee continued, "Hippogriffs, as you see, are half-and-half. Half bird, half horse. Can anyone tell me where Hippogriffs come from?" Lily raised her hand again.

"Yes, Miss Evans."

"They come from Europe, but there are now Hippogriffs all over the world."

"Very good, Miss Evans. Five points for Gryffindor." The Professor was a well-known five-point-giver.

Fifteen minutes later the theory part was over.

"So, now that you know much more about Hippogriffs than you did for only minutes ago, who would like to fly on one?" Professor Schnee said, looking at James. James quickly raised his hand, and the professor told him to come forward.

"Now, do you know what to do?" asked Professor Schnee.

"Yes, professor," he replied. "Bow, wait for him to bow back, slowly approach and not ripping out any feathers."  
"  
Very good, Mr Potter. Five points for Gryffindor," said Professor Schnee, before telling him to do as he had just said.

James bowed deeply and waited for the Hippogriff, Myrna, to bow back. After fifteen long seconds he did, and James approached slowly. The closer he got the more he wanted to fly on it. He climbed up and the Hippogriff left the ground. It was a great feeling riding a Hippogriff, almost like riding a broom. The wind in his hair, the fresh air, the long way down, it all made it worth his while. The ride was way too short, and before he knew it he was down on the ground again.

The end of the lesson was approaching, and Lily hadn't volunteered yet. It was time to do something. When Professor Schnee wasn't looking he made his way towards her. She was looking at Julie who was flying the Hippogriff, and didn't notice him before he whispered to her:  
"Too scary for you?" She jumped, but after collecting herself again she turned to him and said:  
"No, of course I'll do it. I was just giving the others a chance to go first!"

He knew it would work. When Julie got down Lily volunteered, and she was called up. She bowed, the animal bowed back. She approached slowly, and James recognized the look on her face, regret. Probably for volunteering. But she got on the back of it, and it left the ground again.

'This is amazing!' thought Lily as she was flying the Hippogriff. It was nothing she would do daily, but once was great. The wind, the feeling of being so far from the ground, the Hippogriff and the sun mixed together and became something much better than each one alone.

But, unfortunately, that feeling turned into fright and feeling sick before long. She was glad it was over when it was. 'At least I showed James Potter I could do it!' she thought, and that was reason enough for her. The feeling of sickness didn't go away, and Lily went straight to the Hospital Wing. There Madam Pomfrey gave her a potion so that she would fall asleep, and she was excused from the rest of the day's classes.

That night James took out the list. She had flown on a Hippogriff now, so the list was completed, he thought. But when he saw the list, he saw a new sentence on the parchment. "10 – Ride on the back of a Hippogriff" was now crossed out, and instead it said…

**I hope you liked it. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

..."9 – Get an Owl of my own". James could hardly hide his surprise. It was genius, really. And so obvious, when you thought about it. Who would make a list with only number ten? 'Number nine is easier than the last one, though' thought James. After the tenth wish he would think that if there was a ninth wish it would certainly be more complicated than that. There was only one thing that made James want to fulfil all of Lily's wishes, and that was to see what was number one!

What James didn't know, was that number nine would be far more complicated than he could imagine. The following Saturday was free, and James had his plans ready. Early in the morning, right after breakfast, he snuck up to his dormitory and grabbed the Marauders Map. His backpack was already ready, and his alibi had been planned carefully. If anyone asked he had been doing his homework and wished not to be disturbed. He made his way to the secret passageway to Honeydukes, through the statue of the Witch who was famous for something which he could not remember, and all the way to Hogsmade. After twenty minutes he was exhausted, but he had reached his destination.

The Marauders Map was no longer of any help, as it only showed Hogwarts. James put it away, and concentrated on getting out of Honeydukes unseen. The shop wasn't crowded, but luckily he wasn't the only one there. It was a great risk to take, going to Hogsmade. If one of the teachers were there, then whoops, he's expelled. James was just walking down towards the animal-shop, when whoops… Professor-alert went off inside James' head, and in two seconds he was hiding behind a corner. The professor, Professor Dumbledore, went straight past him, although he could swear that Dumbledore lifted his glasses a bit and blinked at him as he walked past him. Professor-alert went off, and James could breath normally again.

A couple of minutes later James entered the animal-shop just down the street from Honeydukes. There were no one inside, only the animals. The birds hooted at him from the minute he came in through the door, ad it smelled of bad eggs and rotted bacon. A bell chimed, and the manager of the store came in as from thin air. Taken by surprise, James took two steps back and stepped on one of the cages so it nearly fell to the ground. The manager caught it, but landed on the floor himself.  
"I'm so sorry" said James, helping him up. Fortunately for him the manager had a sense of humour, and laughed it off.  
"I get that all the time" he said, before he asked "is there anything I can do for you?"  
"Yes, actually" said James. "I'm looking for an owl."

"Well, then you've come to the right place!" the manager said and shot out his arms. He hit one of the cages and landed on the floor again, trying to save the poor creature inside it. After brushing off some dust and cobwebs, the manager went on to showing James some of the owls. The first one was brown, with big eyes and it made a rather disturbing noise with its feet. The next one was white, a little bit blue and… oops, not so steady there. Third one was also white, this one with very few feathers and a loud snoring sound. The other birds were just like the first ones, one worse than the other. At last there was only one left.

"I must warn you" said the manager, and it made James terrified that it was something worse than he'd just witnessed – an owl with no feathers and a terrible singing voice, maybe?  
"I must warn you" repeated the manager "that this owl is one of the smallest ones in Britain." He held a cage in front of James. At first he couldn't see anything, and he began to wonder if it was so small you couldn't see it without a microscope. But there, something was moving down there, there was something alive there. A small owl, smaller than James' fist, was sleeping in the hay. It was chocolate-brown with some white spots on his little wings. It didn't make any weird sounds, it was covered in feathers and most importantly it wasn't purple, like some of the other ones were.

"I'll take this one" he said, happy about his decision. The manager looked from him to the bird to him again.  
"Okay" said the manager after making sure he wasn't kidding. "That will be fifteen sickles, thank you." James took out a galleon and told him to keep the rest. When he got outside he wrote a letter to Lily, unsigned of course, by using his wand, and tied it to the little bird's foot.  
"Now, you bring that to Lily Evans, and you stay with her. You got that?" he said to the bird. It was now very much awake and very eager to get going. It nipped James' glasses before heading off towards the castle. James watched it disappear, and began his journey home.

It was no easy journey, as the place was now crowded with people who might recognize him. He regretted not bringing his invisibility-cloak, why could he never think of those things before it was too late? He was relieved when he was back in the tunnel and on his way to Hogwarts. He climbed up to through the statue, and went to the Gryffindor common-room, ready to find a happy Lily with an owl in her hand.

But no, that would just be too lucky for James. If James wanted just this one thing to happen for him, then that would be the thing that would not happen, for sure. The common-room was a mess when he entered. There was completely chaos, and James headed for one of the tables so that he could stand on it and see what was happening. The sight was not pretty. Someone was lying on the floor, and the crowd was standing around and not moving a finger to help. The person was covered in something James couldn't quite figure out what was. The person was almost being smashed by the crowd. The person seemed to be unconscious. The person seemed to be... LILY!

James jumped off the table and pushed some of the people away from her. He picked her up and headed for the Hospital Wing while wondering what was going on. She was much lighter than he would have thought, and he had no problem carrying her. He felt like a real hero. Almost. He arrived at the Hospital Wind minutes later, and Madam Pomfrey was quickly there, but not asking any questions. The curtains around Lily were closed, and James waited patiently on a chair on the other side of the room. 

The waiting seemed to take forever, but at last Madam Pomfrey approached James.  
"She has got a severe case of allergy" said Madam Pomfrey. James felt like strangling someone, but decided to wait with that.  
"It was lucky you brought her in here now, a couple of more minutes and the damages would be much more severe than it was just now."  
"Any idea of what she's allergic to?" said James, hoping she wouldn't say the word he was thinking of. But the word came.  
"She's got owl-allergy. When she comes in contact with an owl her body reacts this way."

James waited an hour or so before he could see her. He wanted her to have someone there for when she woke up, even if it was only 'Pain-in-the-ass'-Potter, as she so delicately put it. James had to laugh, she was very creative but she wasn't focusing on using her gift on something useful. Except in potions, but that didn't really count.

"Hey, Potter!" he heard from behind the curtains. The curtains were pulled away, and there was Lily. She was still in bed, but she was sitting up straight and she was almost back to normal. James couldn't take his eyes off of her, until she continued.  
"What're you doing here?"  
"What do you mean?" he said. "I've been waiting here for you to wake up!"  
"And why is that, if I may ask?"  
"So that you wouldn't be alone when you woke up!"  
"Madam Pomfrey is here"  
"You know what I mean."  
"Yeah, I know. And thanks, by the way!" Awkward silence.  
"No problem" said James, smiling for the first time. Lily smiled back and the silence became an awkward one again.

"When will you be out of here?" asked James.  
"Before long, hopefully" replied Lily. "Madam Pomfrey said I might have to spend the night."  
"Do you want me to get some of your friends for you?" asked James, not wanting to go but not wanting to be disturbing when she's ill.  
"Are you leaving?" said Lily, a hint of sadness shining through. James was shocked.  
"Not if you don't want me to" said James. Lily nodded approvingly, and James stayed with her until Madam Pomfrey made him go so that Lily could get some sleep.  
"Last thing she needs now is all these guys in here flirting with her" said Madam Pomfrey, and Lily blushed just as much as James did, if not more.   
"I'm the only one here" said James.  
"Oh, well" said Madam Pomfrey. "Off you go."

The day had, in all, been a success. James had managed to get to Hogsmade and back without anyone noticing. He had bought an owl for Lily, and when she had gotten sick from it without knowing he was the guilty one, he had rescued her. Then she had talked to him like a civil human being. The day could not get any better.

The only thing he might be able to live without happened after he had been kicked out of the Hospital Wing. He was just going to go to bed, and since the dinner was about to be served, no one would be in the common-room. That's how wrong you can be. Entering the common-room, James thought he was all alone. He took out his wand and said:  
"Accio diary". The diary came, and just as he was about to open it and write about the day's events, he heard noises from one of the corners. He spun around, and saw Sirius and Holly laughing their butts off.  
"What's so funny?" said James, holding his purple diary behind his back trying desperately to hide it from his friends.  
"Purple?" said Sirius between laughing. "If it had only been black or brown, but purple?"

James disappeared up to his room, extremely embarrassed by the whole scene. He decided to dye the book black, and write 'English Grammar' on it. Then no one would know it was a diary, and no one in his dorm would even dream of opening it.

Lily was out of the Hospital Wing within the next day. She was totally healed, and much livelier than before. She seemed to shine even brighter, and James was blinded every time he saw her.  
"James" said Sirius seriously one day. "You have got to get over her now. It's been… who knows how many years… and she still doesn't like you!" But just at that moment Lily walked past them.  
"Hello, Potter" she said, without the slightest hint of irony or anger. James looked at Sirius, and nothing more needed to be said. Sirius could just give up, because James certainly wasn't.

Two weeks went by before he checked the list again, this time he was hoping for something a little less dramatic. Sure, his and Lily's relationship, if you could call it that, had improved during the last couple of weeks, but there was no need to repeat. Who knows what could go wrong now. Why would she even wish for an owl when she knew she was allergic anyway?  
'Girls' thought James. 'They're just too complicated!' But now that he had started, there was no way he was going to give up on the list. Wish number eight was…


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry i Havent updateed for a while but my internet was down but now i got alll chappy of this story and the other ones on computer so it be easy next chappy in 10 mins

..."8 - Play Quiddich". Laughing made it difficult for James to breath.  
"Girls are way too complicated" he repeated, and put the list back into his drawer.

The weather was lovely and the birds were twittering as the sunshine filled the castle. Classes had never seemed longer, and everyone looked forward to spending their afternoons outside. Lily had gone back to her normal routines after having spent some time at the Hospital Wing. There had been some side affects to her medication, nausea and a fever.

James had kept in the background since the accident. The Gryffindor Quiddich-team hadn't had any practises for exactly eight days, since the captain was in the Hospital Wing after a terrible collision with a bludger gone wild. But he would be okay… eventually. He, Captain Haley, had woken up on Tuesday, and Madam Pomfrey had promised the team that their captain would be just fine in a week, but until then he needed the rest.

Either it was out of boredom or something else James never knew, but Sirius decided to join him in practising Quiddich. Then again, maybe Mary was the reason he was so eager to get on the broom. She was also going with them down to the pitch to watch. Sirius played keeper, while James practised his chaser-skills. He deliberately missed the goals, so that Mary could applaud every time Sirius caught the Quaffle in mid-air.

The air was dry and the sun stayed up until late. The three students stayed out until the sun went down, and it became too dark to properly see the Quaffle. They walked up to the castle together, Sirius and Mary walking hand-in-hand. Obviously there was something James had missed.

"Lily!" said Mary. "You have to come tomorrow. We had such fun! Sirius taught me how to fly a broomstick, and James helped. You should try it. I'm sure they'll help you too!"   
"I'm not very fond of heights, but thanks anyway." Mary shook her head.  
"No, you're coming. Tomorrow is going to be just as sunny as today; I will not let you let it go to waste by sitting inside, studying."  
"Fine, I'll study outside!"  
"You know that's not what I meant!" Mary said with frustration. Lily just turned around in her bed, not facing Mary. Maybe she would come, it had sounded like a lot of fun.

Yet again, the students could not have been happier when the bell rang for the last time the next day. They hurried outside so they could enjoy the sunshine while it lasted. Lily had gone back and forth between coming and not coming, but decided she would come. Mary had been on her case all day, non-stop.

They weren't alone on the pitch. Some Ravenclaw second-years were flying around the three goalposts on the other side. Lily stopped for a minute before stepping on to the green grass of the pitch. James turned and dragged her with him. He would not have her going back up to the castle.

Mary and Lily sat down in the grass, and watched as James and Sirius chased each other around on their brooms. Mary wanted to try, and before long she was on James' broomstick, flying high above the ground. Now, you may think "Why James', and not Sirius'?" Well, James was still on the ground, standing next to Lily who had gotten up to stretch her legs.

"So…" said James, trying to start a conversation. Lily didn't reply.  
"You wanna try?" he continued. She scowled at him.  
"There're no brooms left" she said finally. James was quick to Accio one of the school-brooms. Lily didn't move.  
"I didn't say I wanted to." She said, sitting down on the grass again. James felt his heart sink. He had had the perfect opportunity to fulfil her 'wish'. He sat down beside her.

"You know, we're gonna play some Quiddich later. No one else wants to play, and we need another player. Do you think you could…" He was interrupted by Lily, who was getting up again.  
"As a last resort, you mean? Or just so that you could all make fun of me because I've never played Quiddich before?" She said, her face expressing anger. James was surprised at her outburst and decided he couldn't make it any worse than it already was. Lily was already feeling pretty upset, and her eyes were glittery. If it was one thing James hated, it was to make girls cry.

"That's not what I meant. Why would I do that? Don't you know…" James stopped in mid-sentence. Lily had always been very sceptical of him, much because of the Marauders and all the crazy stuff they did.  
"Don't I know what?" said Lily, trying to make him finish his sentence. "What don't I know?" She shook her head disapprovingly, and started to walk towards the castle. James got up and grabbed her arm gently, turning her around to face him. They were so close their faces almost touched. He didn't know that her heart beat faster, but it did. And so did his. Although the silence between them only lasted a few seconds, to them it seemed like for ever.

James had to gather a lot of courage to say it, but he managed to do so somehow.  
"Don't you know I like you?!" he whispered. She looked him in the eyes, and saw no sign of irony or sarcasm. Still she let go and ran off, leaving James behind.

When Lily finally showed up later that night she had no excuse to where she had been. They would never even believe her if she told them she was flying around the lake, practising her flying-skills.

James hadn't eaten since lunch, he couldn't concentrate and didn't feel like playing Quiddich or pulling any pranks. Something was wrong, and Remus knew it. He only didn't know what yet. The following day he practically forced James to eat some bacon and eggs for breakfast.  
"What's wrong, Prongs?" Remus asked during potions with Slughorn.  
"Nothing, nothing. Just trying to get through this lesson alive." Conversations like this were typical that day. Every time Remus asked what was wrong it was either "I'm just a bit cold", or "I just can't find my Transfiguration-book".

Remus wasn't the only one to notice James' bad mood. And I'm not talking about Sirius here, he was too busy looking for Mary and spending time with her. I'm talking about Lily, who knew exactly what was wrong.

"Hey, Remus!" Lily shouted across the hall. He spotted Lily, and made his way through the crowd towards her.  
"Yeah, what is it, Lily?" He said, looking down at her as she was one head shorter than him.   
"Can you teach me…" Lily started.  
"I can't teach you anything you don't already know. Everything I know I've learned from teachers and you." It was true. Lily and Remus were good friends, and they studied together once a week for many years. She knew about everything.

"No, you know Quiddich" said Lily.  
"Why would you want to know about Quiddich?" Remus asked puzzled. Okay, so there was an exception. She hadn't taught him Quiddich; he had learned that from James.  
"Don't ask. Can you teach me?" she asked hopefully.  
"Tonight at seven?" he accepted.  
"Sure." Lily nodded, and started to walk towards the Great Hall.  
"Oh, and thanks Remus!" she turned and called after him, but he had already turned the corner.

The last drop of sunshine had just escaped the grounds as she entered the empty classroom later that same evening. The room was dusty and didn't look like it had been used for many, many years. Lily used an anti-dust spell, and sat down on one of the now dust-free chairs next to the big, coloured windows. Her bag was placed on the chair beside her, and she reached for the four books she had brought with her. "Quiddich through the ages" and "A beginner's guide to Quiddich" were the first ones to be flipped through.

The door was roughly opened, and Remus burst in with two broomsticks in his hands. Lily got up and tried to protest, but Remus just muttered a spell to pack her bag, and carried the bag out again. Lily followed, although being very confused. Remus wasn't angry; he was just extremely determined and unnaturally stubborn. Much like James…

Remus led the way down to the Quiddich pitch. He did not wait for Lily, nor did he answer her questions.  
"I asked you to teach me ABOUT Quiddich, not to teach me to PLAY it!" Lily said frustrated. Suddenly, and without warning, Remus sprung around and faced her. Lily took a step back, even though they were already two meters apart. Remus handed her one of the brooms, and got on his.  
"Come on, Lily" he said, and then he flew off. Lily panicked. She had never played Quiddich before in her whole life. The broom floated in the air, and she mounted it carefully. The broom knew exactly what to do, and before she had a chance to kick off herself she was flying ten meters above the ground.

Remus came zooming past her. She felt insecure up there, like she was going to fall any second now. She regained her control, and she managed to hold her balance for a while. She was feeling kind of disappointed. The books had told her she would feel free and at peace. Instead she felt trapped and was struggling to keep her balance.  
"Relax" she heard a voice call from behind her. She turned to see Remus just before he zoomed past her again, this time going in the opposite direction.

She lowered her shoulders, took a deep breath and nearly fell off the broom. Finally she managed to swing herself up again, and with newly gained balance she ordered her broom to go forwards. To her big surprise, it was easier when the broom was moving than when it wasn't. She caught up with Remus, who laughed and sped up. Lily tried to follow, but he was too quick. Down, up, right, left, the broom seemed to have a mind of its own. Before long, however, they couldn't see a hand before them anymore. They landed just outside the doors to the Entrance Hall.

"Thanks, Remus" said Lily. Remus smiled.  
"No problem." He looked over at the Quiddich pitch as to demonstrate what he was thinking.  
"Tomorrow I'll teach you the game."  
"Already looking forward to it!" said Lily. She handed the broom back to Remus, who charmed it back to wherever the school-brooms were kept. They walked to the common-room together, and not another word was uttered.

James had not had an evening as nice as Lily and Remus had. He was sitting alone in the common-room when Peter came down to talk to him.  
"Not now, Wormtail." He muttered, and Peter did has he was told, as he always did. As soon as Peter was gone, James got up. His forehead was burning, and his cheeks were a deep shade of red.  
"You need to get over her, Prongs!" said a familiar voice, the same one who had said the very same thing over a thousand times before over the last couple of years. James nodded, then suddenly felt dizzy and fainted.

The Hospital Wing was way too light and way too warm. James woke up two hours later, only to find himself in a white bed with white curtains around it. Madam Pomfrey came out of nowhere, and wanted to know how he was.  
"Are you feeling dizzy at all? No? All right. Are you on any kind of diet or exercising programme? You sure? Well, if you say so. You haven't been eating, so food was all you needed." Madam Pomfrey stopped to breathe. Sirius came in to see how James was doing. When Madam Pomfrey saw him, she started again.  
"And you, Mr. Black, you need to look after your friend here for the next couple of weeks. He has to eat at least four times a day, and drink double as many times. That is eight, Mr. Black!" She added, when Sirius started counting on his fingers.

James had to stay in the Hospital Wing for two more days to be sure he ate enough. Amongst the visitors were Sirius and Mary, Peter, Remus and a couple of third-year girls giggling and whispering amongst each other. Madam Pomfrey had, fortunately, thrown the last ones out at once. All in all, he had a couple of dull days. He wished Lily would come, if only to show herself in the doorway, but she never came. This disappointed him. He had been the one who took the big step and told her he liked her. Why couldn't she stop avoiding him, and say something?!

Remus and Lily had had a great time, despite that both Lily and Remus felt guilty about James for different reasons. Lily and Remus had played Quiddich, not with a Snitch but with a Quaffle and only one Bludger. To no-one's surprise; Remus won by two hundred and forty points. Lily accepted her defeat, but promised to come back stronger. At that, Remus laughed. Lily pushed him and he fell to the ground. She lay down beside him, and together they searched the sky for any known constellations.

James had failed in trying to complete the list. He had given up, he was finished and nothing could change his mind. He went up to the dorm, and opened his drawer to find wish number seven. 


	4. Chapter 4

"7 – Change my middle-name." But not even this could change James' mind. With wishes like these it would be just as smart to stop now, than to have to give up on wish number three!

The next two days were nerve-wracking for James. He took little or none comfort in the fact that Lily talked to him like a normal human-being again, after several years of nothing but barking and shouting. The list was driving him mad. He really, really wanted to get to wish number one. The library seemed to know nothing concerning his problem; he had even asked Madam Pince. Not that she was any help to him at all, but at least he'd tried.

Another two days went by, and James could not take it any longer. He took out the list again, and studied it for a long time. Nothing besides the wishes, the title and the name was written on the small piece of parchment. Nothing but Lily's beautiful handwriting.  
'Okay,' he thought to himself. 'Don't get too carried away now'. James was the king of sneaking around the castle, pulling jokes on people and playing Quiddich. He soon realized, however, that this would not help him much in finding out what Lily's middle name was. What he needed was gossip, and he would not get it from sitting in his bed thinking about it. He sprinted down the stairs, filled with determination and new energy.

The Queen of gossip, also known as Cheyenne, was a third-year Slytherin. She had earned her reputation through her two years of gossiping at Hogwarts, and she knew everything about everyone. Cheyenne was small for her age and had so dark brown hair, it was almost black. Her eyes were dark too, but you rarely saw them anywhere but in classes, where she was forced to take off her black sunglasses. Another well-known thing about Cheyenne was that she spent most of her time, when she wasn't catching up on the latest juicy gossip, in the library, hiding behind shelves. 'Many secrets are shared in the library', Cheyenne used to say.

So James headed off to the library with the Marauders Map in his hand. Wouldn't want to get lost in there, right? And besides, very few found Cheyenne when she was hiding, but even she couldn't hide from the Marauders. James found her easily enough, but catching up with her when she tried to escape was harder. She was fast. James took a shortcut and reached her at the end of the 'Newer History'-bookshelf.

"What do you want, Little Marauder?" asked Cheyenne, accepting the fact that she would not be able to run from him. Cheyenne had nick-names for everyone, and she had made up a whole new language which only she and her closest friends could speak.  
"I need to know one thing." James started, catching his breath again after the running. "Do you know what Lily Evans' middle-name is?" He didn't cover it up with great big words, because chances were that Cheyenne had known about him liking Lily since her first week at Hogwarts.

"Hmm, that is so last year." Cheyenne thought out loud.  
"Do you know?" James asked impatiently. Cheyenne looked at him like he had offended her.  
"What kind of question is that?" she didn't give him time to answer. "Of course I know. I know everything around this castle!" Her voice had gone from low and sweet, to loud and harsh. James apologized, making it clear that he totally agreed. Cheyenne seemed to lighten up at this.

"I know TP's middle-name, yes." Cheyenne continued as if nothing had happened.  
"TP?" asked James, confused.  
"Teacher's Pet," explained Cheyenne. "Now, her middle-name is something with H… Harriet, Halley, Hilly, Hilda… Yes, of course. Lily Hilda Evans. But this is so last year, why did you want to know anyway?"  
"Oh, it was nothing. Thanks." James muttered, and off he went. Cheyenne went back to hiding behind shelves, James could tell from the Marauders Map. 

James had to concentrate to remember her name, Lily Hilda Evans. He forgot all the time, and had to write it on his sleeve not to forget. He would not like to go back to Cheyenne again; the Slytherin Queen hadn't seemed very pleasant. One night, two nights after James' finding out about Hilda, Sirius woke up in the middle of the night after a horror-nightmare. Mary asked him to marry her, and Sirius had to say yes because if not her big brother the boxer would come and kick his arse.

Sirius didn't feel much like sleeping again after such an experience, and decided to have some fun with the other Marauders while they were sleeping. He tip-toed over to Remus' bed and muttered a hair-colour-changing charm. His hair became a sharp shade of lime-green. He held in a laugh, and hurried over to Peter's bed. He muttered an eye-colour-changing charm on his eyes. The effect would be a pair of all-white eyes in the morning. It would make him look like a zombie, and everyone would be scared of him. Hah!

James was up, and Sirius hurried over to his bed. It was then he noticed a name on James' sleeve. He turned his head to see it in from the right angle. The name "HILDA" was written in capital-letters. Sirius felt left out at first, for not being told that James had gotten over Lily and started dating, or at least liking, someone else. The sad/angry feeling soon turned to joy over his newest idea; Spelling out "I Love You Hilda!" on James' forehead. How brilliant was he?? The best thing was; James wouldn't even see it himself!

The next morning Remus and Peter got quite a surprise when they looked in the mirror. Well, actually Peter didn't at once, because he never looked at himself in the mirror. He only did when people started to avoid him in the halls, which was normal, but not as much as this particular day. Remus, on the other hand, had gone into the bathroom to comb his hair, and five minutes later James had found him on the bathroom-floor. After waking Remus up, James had to swear not to tell anyone he fainted. Then they both tried to find a counter-spell, but without luck.

Remus was so shocked about his own hair that he didn't notice the big words on James' forehead. James got his shock when Hilda Goldenblume marched over to him at breakfast. She was behaving oddly, and Sirius could hardly keep himself from laughing. He moved over so Hilda could sit between them. She did, and Sirius had to stuff his face with pancakes not to laugh.

"Eh, I'm sorry. Did you want something?" James asked Hilda, not noticing Sirius' now bright red face.  
"Well, if it's true then I wondered when you'd be asking me out!" said Hilda confidently. Her light blue eyes were extremely open, and her dark brown hair covered her whole back. Her other fourth-year friends were following the conversation closely from the Hufflepuff-table.  
"I'm sorry?" said James, scanning his head for events that might have something to do with this very odd conversation.  
"I said; when will you be asking me out?" She wasn't very subtle about it, and James felt rather uncomfortable.   
"I don't know what you're talking about" he said, and with that he left the Great Hall, still not noticing Sirius, who now had a rather dark shade of red and was struggling to breathe from all the laughter.

Lily had had a crappy day yesterday, and was expecting a nice, calm morning. Enjoying the free time on this fine Sunday morning was definitely on her list of things to do. The weather had changed into a cold, harsh rainstorm, and the castle felt warm and safe, sort of comforting in a way. But that was until HE came along. James was still feeling uncomfortable, and was heading for the owlery, which tended to soothe him. Lily was walking down the stairs, and BAM.

They both hit the floor, one more painfully than the other.  
"What the… Potter!" Lily's voice rang through the hall. He lifted his head to see who he'd hit, and saw Lily's face turn from anger to amusement. He decided then and there for the umpteenth time that girls were impossible to understand, and that trying would be a waste of time. James took his own advice, and hurried into the nearest broom-closet. Lily, still with a smile on her face, went on into the Great Hall. This day could turn out all right after all!

James, on the other hand, did not share her point of view. He hid in the dark closet for a couple of minutes, before sneaking out and heading for the dormitories. There was Remus, who hadn't yet built up the courage to go out with green hair. James slipped onto his bed and was going to get his broom out, when Remus said:  
"Who's Hilda?" The question shocked him. How could he know…?  
"Um, sorry?" Remus' face turned from interested to enlightened.  
"Oh, you don't know??" Remus laughed. James mouth fell open, and he headed for the mirror. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Remus came up behind him, his bright green hair glistening and reflecting the light from the lamp in the ceiling.

"You've got "I LOVE HILDA!" spelled out on your forehead, Prongs!" said Remus. "You can't see?" James shook his head. Since he didn't know the counter-curse, he did the only thing that came to his mind. Two minutes later his forehead was all black, and the writing no longer showed. He ran down to the Great Hall, and found Sirius just outside the big oak-doors.

"You're crazy!!" James yelled. "I know it was you!!" Sirius tried to look innocent, and as he had had a lot of practise he would have fooled a lot of people. But not Prongs. Sirius soon realized, and did the counter-curse so the name was gone. But the other paint wasn't. After a couple of spells without the wanted effect, Lily, who was watching the whole scene like everyone else, found it too dangerous not to help. She muttered 'clenso', and the paint was gone.

After days of serious thinking, James still had no idea how to make her change her name without telling her. He could not do it himself, believe me he tried. The nice lady at the name-changing-office became the not so nice lady at the name-changing-office quickly after he had told her his problem, although he had left certain things out. Like the list, the other wishes, Lily's not liking James and such were left out. Really almost everything, except that his friend wanted to change her name. But no, she had to do it herself!

Lily had been enjoying her days since the fun incident. Playing Quiddich, homework and having fun with Remus were the main attractions. Some would find it boring, but she, however, had a great time. She was starting to warm up since she started Quiddich, even warming up to James. They would need to talk.

James had to get a book about dragons in the 17th century. The place was the library. James brought the Marauders Map to be sure to find the way. He also brought the list, not knowing why, but feeling he should. He made his way through the crowd of students in the common-room, out into the open hallways and along the corridor. As he was running past the trophy-room, he saw Filch on the Map, and he was on his way towards him. James did not stop to think, and opened the door to the nearest class-room.

As soon as he was inside he closed the door carefully. James had nothing to hide from Filch, and he could freely walk the hallways at this hour, but Filch would always find something on him, often enough to punish by detention or at least a loss of house points. Back to James in his hiding place, as soon as he saw that Filch had passed the door, he turned his back to the door and took a deep breath. The breath, however, soon became a cough when he saw who was in the classroom… 


	5. Chapter 5

The room was filled with teachers; Professor Slughorn, Professor Schnee, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore and the Headmaster. James turned red as a tomato and excused himself.  
"Ehm, hum, I'm really… so sorry… I don't… Didn't… Bye…!" He grabbed the handle, turned it and exited the room in a hurry, shutting the door behind him. He could not believe that he had missed all of the little dots on the map. Maybe he should get new glasses!

You'd think his troubles had come to an end there, but no. Two corridors later he saw another danger coming his way. Severus Snape was the slyest and meanest pupil ever to attend Hogwarts, if you didn't count Lucius Malfoy. Either way, Snape was about to turn the corner and see him. James checked the map thoroughly for any sign of professors or others, before he entered yet another classroom. To James' great relief this one was empty.

James took a second to breathe, but as he was going to leave the room again he saw another little dot on the map, and it was moving towards his classroom. James looked around for a good place to hide. The obvious place was under the teacher's desk. He was quick to get over there, and had just bent down and out of sight when the door was opened and a red-headed girl came in and closed the door as she entered.

James hadn't taken the time to read the dot's label, and didn't know who to expect. Lily sat down in a chair five desks from where James sat.  
"Hello James!" she said slowly. James' eyes widened and he slowly emerged from his hiding-spot. Lily just sat there, her face expressing 'I-knew-you-were-there'. James sat down in a chair, facing her. She was looking out of the window as if not listening.  
"How did you…?" He was cut off. She turned to face him and James jumped in his chair as he saw her left eye. If was swollen and bruised terribly.

James didn't even try to calm down when he knew he should've. He rushed to his feet, didn't know where to go or what to do and sat down again.  
"Who?" said James. "Who did this to you?" His voice was shaking out of anger.  
"It's not important!" said Lily. James thought he wasn't hearing right.  
"Not important?" he yelled. Lily covered her ears, came in contact with her swollen eye and yelped out in pain. James rushed to her side and held her hand without even noticing it himself. They both noticed at the same time, and drew their hands back.

"I'll help you to the Hospital Wing" said James, not knowing what else to do. He had ended up at the Hospital Wing quite a few times lately. Lily refused, but then her eye hurt again and she accepted weakly. James supported her as she got up, but was soon jerked off and quite abruptly told that she wasn't a toddler and that she could walk on her own.

The Hospital Wing wasn't crowded, not that it ever was. Madam Pomfrey was having lunch, and was quite a bit grumpy when she had to lay down her sandwich to help the two of them.  
"Weren't you two in here not so long ago?" she said. James and Lily looked at each other guiltily before nodding. Lily covered her mouth at the pain, not for nodding but for the cleansing-wipes Madam Pomfrey had started working with.

In ten minutes Lily's eye wasn't swollen anymore, but the bruise was showing as strongly as ever. James had waited outside, and wondered why Madam Pomfrey hadn't removed it.  
"She said she couldn't work with bruises like these." Lily said simply. "Too close to the scull and brain, might do some damage…" Lily mimicked. James let out a laugh, and Lily joined him. Two seconds later they were both silent again, and the silence lasted all the way up to the Gryffindor common-room.

Right before they reached the Fat Lady James was just dying to know who did it.  
"Please tell me who it was" he pleaded. "I'll kick his arse for you! Or not, if you don't want me to. But please?" Lily stopped and looked at him.  
"Who says it's a 'he'?" she said.  
"I don't know. I just assumed."

Lily walked up to the Fat Lady, whispered the password and opened the door.  
"Oh, and by the way James. They just changed the passwords." Lily looked at him from behind the portrait. James was quick to answer.  
"To what?" he said.  
"I don't know…" said Lily in a fake-sweet tone. James ran for the opening, but Lily was too quick to shut it.

"Fireflies" he tried, but the old password was no good. "Come on, you know me. I'm James Potter; I pass here ten times a day every day at the least. Please, won't you just let me in?" James tried. The Fat Lady shook her head and told him she couldn't do that, since the girl who just passed had told her not to let him in even if he begged her.

James could not believe his luck. He was stuck in the hallway in the middle of the day, and had nowhere else to go but the library. Then he remembered he still had the Marauders Map in his pocket, and took it out. He hadn't had the chance to turn it off yet, and so it was still showing the school-grounds and all of the people.

Snape was in an empty classroom along with Narcissa Black. Wasn't she Malfoy's girl? 'Ah, who cares?' thought James, as he scouted for any Gryffindors. He found Sirius on the map, but right beside him was Mary, and he really didn't want to interrupt anything. He continued his search and his eyes finally rested on Remus, who was practicing Quiddich out on the fields. 

James 'Accio'-ed his broom and was out of the castle in no time at all. The wind was blowing freshly and he inhaled deep breaths of fresh air as he zoomed down to where Remus was. He put away the Marauders Map and steered his broom to stop in mid-air right in front of Remus, who had stopped as soon as he had seen James coming towards him.

"Hey Prongs, what're you doing here?" asked Remus. James noticed several cuts and biting marks on Remus' hands, and felt sorry for him. The full-moon had just passed. He shook away the thought and asked him what he had come for.  
"Do you know the new password for the Fat Lady?" he asked.  
"Sure, it's 'Hilda'" Remus couldn't help but laugh. James didn't think it was all that funny, and just started at Remus with icy eyes.  
"Come on, the real password, Moony!" he was growing impatient.  
"I just told you" said Remus sincerely. James closed his eyes in defeat before nodding and flying back to the castle.

The password was actually the right one, and James made a memo to find out who made the passwords and personally give him or her a piece of his mind. But now he was concentrating on finding out who had hit Lily. First of all he went up to his dormitory and emptied his pocket. The Marauders Map, the wand and the… wait a minute. Didn't he bring the list too? James checked his other pocket and found the piece of parchment with "Ten things I wanna do in life…" on top, "By Lily Evans" on the bottom and in between it said "6 – Have a star named after me."

James stared at the list in shock. Since when had she changed her name? After James had had 'I Love Hilda' on his forehead? No, wait, she laughed at that. Then when? James' head felt like exploding, and the only cure for that was flying. He got on his broom and the fresh air hit him once again.

After a good thirty minutes on the broom James had decided it wasn't important how and why she had done it, only that she had. As he climbed back through the portrait-hole he tried to keep his focus on how to name a star Lily. What he needed was books, and loads of them.

He had checked out fifteen books that afternoon, and Madam Pince had looked at him curiously and worriedly, as if he was kidnapping them. He ignored her boring glances and carried them all the way to the Fat Lady. After going through two of them he was so tired he fell asleep.

Sirius was the one waking him. He wanted to tell James something, because he had figured that not telling him wouldn't be nice. James looked at Sirius with tired eyes and sat up properly in his chair. Sirius looked at him guiltily before revealing a book that he'd been hiding behind his back. It was black, and it said 'ENGLISH GRAMMAR' with capital letters.

James shot up and snapped the book out of his hands.  
"Did you open it?" he asked worriedly.  
"No, I was just wondering since when you'd been interested in English grammar and stars." James breathed in relief. Sirius continued. "What are you looking for anyway?" he pointed at the books spread all over the table.  
"Ehm, how to name a star" Sirius looked strangely at him. Then he nodded.  
"Better give you a hand then" and they both started flipping through pages to see if it said anything important.

After fifteen minutes the two boys had found two ways of naming a star. The muggle way to do it was to send an application to the star-office or something. The Wizard way to do it was to point at a star not already named and say "Navnet er" and then the name. James decided to go with the last one, and Sirius agreed with him there. Sirius left James to it, and James went looking for a book on stars and the names of them.

It was incredible how many of the start were already named. No wonder, when it was that easy to do it. There only seemed like two stars left without a name. One was so tiny you could barely see it, but the other one was shining brightly and it looked beautiful up there in the great big sky.

That same night, James went outside with his invisibility-cloak securely around him. He got to the grounds unseen, found the star, pointed at it with his wand and said "Navnet er Lily". The star blackened for a moment, and James started to worry that it wasn't the right spell. But soon enough the star lighted again, and James let out a breath in relief.

James went to bed that night thinking that the wish was fulfilled and there would be a new wish. He found the piece of paper and read the wish. "6 – Have a star named after me". Wait a minute, he'd heard that before. The wish wasn't fulfilled? No that couldn't be, he'd just named it!

The following day was a schoolday. James showed up early for Care of Magical Creatures-class, and met an eating Professor Schnee standing among little creatures that looked a lot like dogs. Professor Schnee smiled at him, and James said hello. Then he waited for Lily to come. She came early as always, but almost turned again after seeing James standing there. James told her to wait up, and she slowly stopped.

"Can't you just tell me?" said James. Lily turned.  
"All right, but this isn't the place" she said carefully. "Meet me in the astronomy tower at midnight tonight!" James nodded, as the time and place couldn't have been better. For the rest of the lesson he tried to concentrate on what Professor Schnee said, but he couldn't help looking over at Lily every two seconds, thinking that he was finally doing something right.


	6. Chapter 6

As he didn't have a minute to spare, he didn't stop to check the Marauders Map every two seconds as he used to when he was out of bed after curfew. The corridors were empty, which was lucky because anyone could have heard him if they weren't sleeping. The night was bright and the air fresh, the moon was shaped like a C, but it still lit up the dark corridors and James didn't need his wand for light.

As he reached the astronomy tower, James' watch showed 11.58. He was right on time! As he opened the door to the room with the weird equipment-stuff, he hit something hard. He pulled the door back, and harshly slammed it open. He heard a scream on the other side of the door, and kicked his own butt mentally when he realized what he'd done.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he entered and went to help her get up. "I mean, I didn't know it was you, and I'm really, really very extremely sorry!"  
"I'm all right" Lily smiled at him. He returned the smile, and breathed in relief. There was a silence, but not an awkward one. They stood there for half a minute or so, before stepping over to one of the large windows showing the sky.

After both of them had pointed out stars that they recognized, James decided to tell her which one was her own. He looked up and tried to find it.  
"It's supposed to be north of that, yet south of that. And a little bit east but not that far because then you couldn't see it, and…" he had to think really hard to find it, but he did eventually. It was shining brightly as ever.

"You see that star there?" he said, pointing at the Lily-star. James was sitting right behind her, and she turned to look at him while she said:  
"Yes, why?" she looked curious.  
"You know what it's called?" he asked.  
"No, should I"  
"I don't know. I think it'll be easy to remember."  
"How?"  
"It's called Lily. After you!" Lily's mouth dropped open.

"How do you know that?" was her first reaction.  
"I know because I named it. After you." James said while trying to read her expression.  
"That's so sweet!" Lily smiled after having had James sweating for almost half a minute. James looked at her. The bruises were almost gone, or at least covered up with make-up. Lily shifted in her seat and looked out again. James only barely noticed, as he still looking at her, admiring her beauty.

"What did we really come here for again?" said Lily after a while. It seemed like everything took time, and the clock was ticking towards one am.  
"Uhm, I don't know."  
"Me neither. Can't remember."  
"Probably nothing important."  
"Probably not." They just sat there, like brainwashed because the other was in the room.

They didn't leave before it was almost two am, and they were both so tired they didn't talk much. Each other's company was enough, and so no words needed to be said anyway. Sirius was the only one still up, writing a Defence Against the Dark Arts-essay which was due in the morning. When Sirius saw Lily coming in, he didn't hesitate one minute.

"Lily!" he yelled at her. She looked at him tiredly.  
"Wha'?  
"Can I look at your Dark Arts-essay?" Lily was tired, yes, but not that tired. Worth a shot, though. She sprung to life like she'd just been reincarnated.  
"NO!" Lily said loudly, and then turned to James. "I had a great time, James." He was surprised, as she usually didn't call him by his first name. She gave him a little hug before whispering 'good night' and sprinting up the stairs. 

James touched his face where hers had been just a couple of seconds ago.  
"Come on, man!" he heard from Sirius. He dropped his hand and went over to help his friend. 

It wasn't until the next morning that he remembered what he'd come to the astronomy-tower to find out. How could he have forgotten? 'Love makes you blind, deaf, mute and dumb' said a voice inside his head. He agreed!

The list was in his bag, and during History of Magic he remembered and brought it out. Wish number six was crossed out, and instead it said: "5 – Be in a real life role-playing-game". This left James wondering. 'Why would anyone want that?' Well, either way he was going to make it happen.

As the summer kept closing in on them, James decided it would be far easier arranging Lily to be in a role-playing-game over the summer. He went to the library in every single break, trying to find something. Maybe there was some sort of wizarding role-playing-game? But no, he didn't find anything, anything at all. Just as he was giving up, he realized Lily was a muggle-born.

Yes, he already knew she was, it wasn't that. He only just figured out that she could join a muggle role-playing-game. Brilliant! He had to get information elsewhere, though, and worked really hard to get his hands on some information about role-playing-games. He only found three that was going on this summer. Two were no good, but the last one he was sure Lily would like to be in. It was a role-playing-game called 'Refugee'.

The exams didn't go all that bad. There were people, like Lily, who had been reading for over two months. Then there were other people, like the Marauders, who studied the last night before the big test. James was a top student no matter how little or late he practised, but didn't take it all for granted and actually studied more than the other Marauders. But they didn't know that.

When the last day of school came, James was still waiting for the letter he was supposed to give Lily about 'Refugee'. But at breakfast came an owl for him, and he quickly changed the envelope and wrote 'Lily Potter' on it. The owl flew out again, and in a minute later heading for Lily. She kept away from the owl, but opened the letter and read it out loud to her closest friends. 

_Ms. Lily Evans.  
Congratulations, you have been accepted to join 120 other young teenagers for playing the role-playing-game 'Refugee'._

Lily stopped reading. "What?" she said. 

_You will find a list over things you can bring on another paper also in the envelope. The game begins at exactly noon July 14th, at the old Kamelions Fort. If you need road descriptions, please call us. Number on the bottom of the page._

Lily looked in the envelope again, and found the other paper. 

_You can bring:  
A sleeping-bag  
Warm clothes_

"What?" said Lily again. "That's all?"  
"Sounds like fun!" said Mary, who was sitting beside Lily.  
"Yeah, a bit" agreed Lily. Then the group of girls got up and went out of the Great Hall. James mentally thanked Mary, because she had helped him more than she knew.

Later that same day they were all boarding the Hogwarts Express and going home for the summer. The girls were hysterically kissing and hugging everyone, and though some of the boys kept their distance most of them didn't mind. The sixth year boys, among them the Marauders, sure didn't.

As the Express slowed down and stopped at King's Cross Platform 9 ¾, the Marauders said their good byes and went to find their families. James looked around for Lily at first, but she was nowhere to be seen. She had already left with her parents and sister.

Lily wasn't friends with her sister, Petunia. Petunia had been horrible to Lily her whole life, but their parents only swept it away, saying they should love each other as sisters and be best friends. Yeah right.

That was the main reason why Lily was looking forward to this mysterious role-playing-game. She didn't know who had signed her up for it, but she wanted to find out. She wanted to thank whoever it was. Her parents had nothing against it, and the 14th she had her bag, although it was very small, packed and ready to go.

The fort was very military-looking. There were several houses, and a large outside area with grass and fences, trees and a lake on one side. There were about 120 other teenagers there, and they all looked just as excited and curious as herself.

After ten minutes of waiting, a man called Kevin came and asked them to follow him. Lily and everyone else followed down a road to another house, which looked like a normal house where someone could live. They were lead inside, where they were to sit on the wooden floor.

Lily sat down between a girl with raven-black hair and a brown jacket and a boy with sandy-brown hair and a nervous expression on his face. Kevin ordered them to be quiet and started talking.

"Welcome to 'Refugee' everyone. Do you know what you're here for?" No one answered. "You're here to learn a little bit about how life as a Refugee is! We're not going to hurt you or make you do something you don't want to do, but I can guarantee you that this will be an experience to remember. We will give you new names and identities, new families and a new home country. You are all from Sudan!" Whispers went through the room, and Kevin put one finger in the air. "In Sudan, girls are not allowed to show their hair. You will all have to cover up your hair with something" he said to the girls. "Girls also aren't allowed to talk in Sudan, and so you aren't allowed to talk here. Only boys can talk to other people than the people in the family!"

Some girls were angry, others determined to break the rules. Lily only wondered what she had gotten herself into. Kevin started talking again. "If you want to quit for any reason, if you're hurt or something happens that you can't go on, you can say the magic word" Lily chuckled to herself. It was always funny when muggles used that expression. "Emergencystop."  
'Is that even a word?' thought Lily, but was soon distracted as a bag was passed to her. You were supposed to throw anything of value, any food or anything refugees wouldn't have in that bag and you'd get it back after you were done.

Lily put her watch in, and followed the others out. The sun was shining, but it wasn't hot. All the teenagers stood in a circle around Kevin, and he yelled out names to sort them into groups, or families.  
"Lily Evans" called Kevin after a while.  
"Yes!" she answered.  
"Group seven!" Lily went over to the others. The black-haired girl called Amy, the one she had been sitting next to, was there. As was a boy named Matthew and a boy named Paul. After everyone had been sorted they were fourteen people in Lily's family. Soon they were told to select a 'Family father'. Matthew was chosen for team seven, and they became team Matthew.

Then it was time to get new names and identities. Lily's family was the Rufa'a family. Some laughed at the name, but Lily found it quite nice. She also liked her own name, which was Lulu. As the families were done, they were to continue up to 'The Norwegian Embassy'. They were trying to get into Norway!

The Embassy was poorly organized. Matthew and his two buddies also on team Matthew left their bags out in the hallway. They really shouldn't have done that, because as they were in the first office two women came in carrying their bags.  
"What're you doing with our bags?" asked Matthew.  
"No-no. These are our bags!" they spoke English, but very badly. "You want to buy them?" We had been given money before we left the first house, and we had already used some to bribe a guard. They decided to buy only one of the bags, and the other ones were gone.

After the first office was a second office. There they had to take pictures.  
"This is a very important picture" the picture-lady said. "It will be in the paper if you're dead." Lily was shocked, but also amused. The clock ticked away, and waiting was terrible. They hadn't eaten in hours, and the people who were supposed to be working at the embassy ate pancakes and waffles right in front of their faces.

The third office wasn't actually an office. They were lead down to the basement, where there was an old bathroom with showers and toilets. Luckily there was no smell. Standing there was a chubby, but tall man in his mid twenties. He ordered them to stand in two lines, one for the girls and one for the boys.

"And your family name?" he asked, ready to take notes.  
"Rufa'a" answered Matthew.  
"And you are how many?" asked the man.  
"Fourteen" said Matthew. Then came the two women who had stolen the bags, and they asked the man if he knew where there was more coffee. The man answered that he didn't, before the women left and the man turned back to the teens.   
"So, what did you say your name was again? Just so I can wri… Oh, I _have_ written it down. Okay how many are you? I have to write it d… Oh, I _have_ written that down, yes." He was getting annoying now.

Then he told them this was a physical test. First on the list was jumping up and down. He inspected them as they jumped, fist the boys and then the girls. Suddenly they were interrupted again, this time by three guards coming through. They looked very strong and dangerous. Lily thought she was supposed to stop, and she did. But then one of the guards noticed and told her very loudly to start jumping again. Lily was so scared she didn't even hesitate one moment. She jumped all she could. The guard went back to the other guards. After a minute or so they continued in through another door.

The man in charge of the physical test told them to stop, finally. Then they had to do sit-ups. Lily was so exhausted that she could barely even think it, but she got down and did it anyway. After half a minute they were instructed to stand up again. The man went over to his papers, and looked at them.  
"Now you jump!" he said.  
"We _have_ jumped!" said Matthew.  
"No… No I haven't crossed that out. Jump now!" said the man. They were all so angry with him that they almost didn't jump. But they did.

After doing far too much jumping and running, and far too many sit-ups, as he kept forgetting to cross it out, the guards came back and led them into another room. They were scared then, because although they knew the guards couldn't harm them they were still scary. Amy and Lily stood side-by-side, waiting for their turn to go into yet another room and have the guards go through their bags.

A couple of minutes later one of the guards signalized for Lily to bring her bag and come. Her hands were shaking as she got nearer to the door. Inside there were three tables, one for each guard. Matthew was in there too, and she was glad because he was the only one besides Amy she felt she trusted a little bit. The guard asked her, as he was going through and throwing everything out of her bag, what her name was. She didn't answer at first, because she thought it was a trick-question. The girls weren't supposed to talk, as Kevin had instructed them. But as he asked again, she answered.  
"Lulu Rufa'a". She had remembered her new name, birthday, hometown and social status by heart. She came from the capital of Sudan, Khartoum.

The guard okay-ed her, and she took all of her stuff out into where Amy had been waiting to put it back into her bag. When they were all done they went upstairs again, and they were led into an empty room with only a couple of chairs. Lily got one of them, and those who didn't get chairs sat down on the floor. They were all exhausted by now, as they hadn't sat down for what felt like ages.

They hadn't eaten anything either, and it was now four o'clock. That's six hours without food. The smell of pancakes as someone passed the door with them made everyone even hungrier. The group decided to talk about how disgusting those pancakes must've tasted. It helped a bit.

Suddenly an alarm went off somewhere, and a guard came in and told them to get down. They did, and the followed everyone else down to the basement. All 120 teens were gathered in the small bathroom, and there would not have been space enough for any more people down there. Lily and Amy felt like they knew each other by now, and they had a good time talking to each other.

A good twenty minutes later a guard came in.  
"SILENCE!" he yelled, and the chatter died quickly. "The military has been here, and you're not safe. You have to get to the Egyptian border yourselves!" The Rufa'a family was the first one to get out, and so they were first to pick a guide.

The guide they picked to lead them to Egypt was crazy. That was the only word to describe it. He led them down a hill and then down a road. When other families passed, he instructed them to get down, and not to look at them or talk to them.  
"If you do that, I will go. Just go!!" he said, like dead serious. So they did what they were told.

The guide had promised them they would be first to the border, and they were. Not that that necessarily was a good thing.

As they came to the border, the military there ordered them to take out their passports. Only problem was, one was missing! The military yelled and yelled. They screamed so near their ears that the Rufa'a family thought they would be deaf when it was over. Luckily the soldiers didn't take it that far. They only made the family jump, run, take sit-ups and push-ups. As a special punishment for not bringing all passports, they had to take their bags and hold them over their heads for quite a long time.

Lily was now cursing whoever had signed her up.

James, on the other hand, was enjoying life at the beach with the Marauders. They played all sorts of muggle sports. Volleyball and badminton were favourites. Just as they were buying ice-creams, James came to think of Lily.  
'She must be having a great time!' he thought, satisfied. 


	7. Chapter 7

After holding their bags up over their heads for over five minutes, they were finally told to put down their bags. And if they didn't want to stay any longer, they could go. No one even considered staying. The group hurried down the road leading away from the border on the other side, and as the first family they were now in Egypt.

The road led to a refugee-camp. There were only a few people there, and a nice-looking lady welcomed them. The woman asked them questions, like what their names were and how many they were. They were all exhausted, and Lily noticed that Matthew had no idea what to say or do.

"Matthew!" she whispered to him. He turned around.

"What?" he asked.

"We're the Rufa'a family, and we're fourteen!" Matthew nodded, looking a little embarrassed that he hadn't remembered.

Amy looked at Lily with an amused smirk on her face, but the amusement didn't last long as they didn't have enough energy left to have fun.

"We're the Rufa'a family, and we're fourteen!" repeated Matthew to the woman, and she scribbled down the information.

Then she handed him something for them all to sleep on, and another woman, slightly younger, showed them to a place they could sleep. It wasn't very comfortable, as the ground was stony and crooked, but they managed.

The night was cold, and the time was close to eleven. Amy and the others were enjoying the free time, at last. Lily, on the other hand, felt like she was freezing to death. She put on an extra sweater, even though she was already wearing two sweaters, a jacket and was in the sleeping-bag.

"I'm going to unfreeze my hands by the fire" said Lily to Amy though gittered teeth, and Amy nodded back.

A fire had been lit just before they came, and there were a couple of girls and boys standing around it. Lily climbed out of the sleeping-bag, but kept it around herself as her whole body was shivering.

The fire looked warmer than it was, but it warmed her a little. The two women who had showed them in were now talking to some of the girls around the fire. All the other families had arrived too, and the place was full of sleeping-bags.

After five minutes which seemed like an hour, a white van came. Two guys jumped out, and they carried something with them. Metal boxes were unloaded, and the women left the fire to help the men in the van. Lily heard the girl sitting beside her say: 

"They're bringing food!"

And it was true, not long after the families had one metal-box each. Lily went over to her family again. Matthew had opened the box, and found that there was enough cold rice for everyone to eat one handful. When the box was handed to Lily she took a handful like everyone else, but she didn't eat it at once like the others did. She waited a couple of minutes, before secretly giving it to Amy. At first Amy wouldn't accept it.

"Take it, Amy. I'll throw it away if you don't take it right now!" Lily hissed.

Amy looked at her and accepted it slowly.

"Why wouldn't you eat it?" she asked.

Lily thought about saying 'I'm not hungry', but that would be stupid of her.

"I'd just be hungrier" she said, not entirely lying.

She made her way back to the fire, and then only a minute later she saw Kevin with a bottle of water walking over to her family. He was followed by two of the men that had played guards in the basement up at the embassy. They were wearing different clothes now, and they had definitely changed roles. The three men talked to Matthew, who again looked bewildered. Amy was hiding at the bottom of her sleeping-bag. Lily could hear only bits of the conversation.

"…I'm a Norwegian doctor coming with medicine for you… If you don't all drink you have to go to another Refugee-camp twenty miles from here… You want to pack your bags right away?" Kevin said.

"No! No…" Matthew said, and agreed to take the medicine first.

The bottle said water, but water wasn't what came out of it. Matthew almost threw up, but managed to hold it in and swallowed it with great difficulty. Lily was relieved that she was standing by the fire, and not lying beside Amy.

John, another member of the Rufa'a family, had just been given his medicine when he noticed that Amy was lying in her sleeping-bag. Lily watched him, hoping he would decide not to let Kevin know. He did the middle thing, kicking Amy in her sleeping-bag. Not hard, he wasn't violent or anything, it was just to surprise her and maybe she'd give herself up by making a sharp noise.

But Amy stayed perfectly still, and didn't come out until she was sure that the danger was over. Lily had been watching the whole thing, and jumped when one of the women told her she had to get back to her family. Though still ice-cold, Lily did what she was told. Two minutes later another woman came by and told them to pack their bags. They had to get out of there, because the camp had been spotted by the military!

The Rufa'a family was again the first to leave the camp, with a perfectly normal guide this time. It was a woman called Hilda. She was probably in her mid forties, and she didn't look like she belonged out in the wild. She led them up a hill, but it all went very slow. She didn't walk very fast, and some of the guys were starting to get impatient.

"Will you hurry up?" they asked, quite rudely.

"I'll take my time!" answered Hilda with dignity. The boys rolled their eyes and continued up the hill.

Another group were catching up with them, and soon the Rufa'a-family had been passed by the Kalamira-family. The guys were grumpy about it at first, but they soon shut up as the Kalamira-family were seen by a military-car. Lily heard screams, and saw the family run to the left and off the road. Lily and her family stopped dead in their tracks, hoping the car wouldn't see them.

As the other family had ran away from the road, the military-car had to turn around to drive back down the hill. But when they were halfway through the turn, the light fell upon the Rufa'a family. Matthew was, for the first time, the only one who held his head cold.

"This way!" he instructed his family, and they all followed his command.

Lily followed the boys down another hill, filled with rocks and trees. The car couldn't catch them there! Amy ran too, but she was pushed back and ended up running beside Hilda. Lily and three of the boys were in front, and when they reached some bushes they ran through them and were sure they were safe.

As soon as they were all through, something that hadn't been easy, light fell upon their backs. Not even glancing back, they went through the bushes again. This time they checked that the car wasn't behind them. Lily's heart was racing like crazy. First the saw Amy and Hilda, and then she saw… Oh no! A light fell upon them for the third time, and the whole family hurried through the bushes to the other side. When they didn't see the car, they all breathed in relief.

After a while Lily spotted a family who were sitting down in the grass. They all went to join them. The two families blended, and Lily was so tired that she almost fell asleep. The only thing stopping her was the cold.

"Lily Evans?" she heard a voice behind her. It was a familiar voice, yet she couldn't remember from where.

"Hi, it's really you! I haven't seen you for years!" continued the female voice.

The leader of the other family hushed her, and she went on whispering. Lily didn't feel like moving, at all, but turned around. There was Sophia, a muggle 'friend' from school. Friend? Not really. More like total bully and school's most popular.

"Hey, Sohpia. How're things?" said Lily, turning again.

Lucy ignored her turning and forgot yet again to keep quiet. The military could hear them if they were too loud. Hushes came from half the crowd. 

"I'm good. And John is too!"

Oh yes, she had to bring up John. Lily felt her cheeks burning red from annoyance. John had been Sophia's best friend, until he decided he'd be better off with popular friends. Sophia was the first to befriend him after he had totally humiliated Lily in front of the whole school.

Knowing she couldn't do magic outside of school, Lily hadn't brought her wand with her. Sophia should be glad!

"So, where did you go to school when you quit? And why _did_ you quit?" asked Sophia with clearly fake concern. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I quit because I got into a school for gifted children. Only ten children from all of Great Britain got in there. You know, the test we had the last year I went to your school, the big one? That was the test you had to pass to be one of the finalists. You totally failed it, didn't you??" she said, lying. Sophia could not possibly remember such details from that long ago.

She didn't hear more from Sophia after that, and Lily didn't care enough to look back. After another freezing ten minutes, Hilda called her group together. The other family, with Sophia, began travelling again, and left the Rufa'a family alone.

Having eaten nothing at all in thirteen hours, any food at all would be gone in a minute had it been given to the group. With what Hilda brought, there was nothing left by ten seconds. Chocolate, being Lily's number one favourite candy, was more than welcomed as Hilda pulled one chocolate-bar out of her back-pack.

Enjoying the chocolate-bit that had been offered her, Lily followed the others down the hill, towards the woods on the other side of the field. Amy fell a little behind the others, and Lily waited for her.

Walking along, light suddenly shone from behind them. They stopped, but didn't even have to see what was there. The car made a terrible noise. Then the two girls heard a loud, dark, macho voice from behind them bellowing "RUN!"

They didn't need to be asked twice. They ran what they could, and the rest of the group did the same. Even when they could no longer see the light, they ran further. Suddenly Matthew, who was running first, stopped abruptly. Two or three people fell over him, including Lily.

Getting up, she could see why he had stopped. Two meters forward was the end of the road, with a very, very steep downwards hill. Luckily no one was hurt, Hilda made sure of it before they all continued.

Around one o'clock, after sitting still and walking only a few hundred meters at a time, Lily and her family spotted the 'Norwegian border'. Unlike the Egyptian border, there were no soldiers or closed gates there.

Passing the border, they noticed they were second last. Lily grew impatient, walking faster than the others. The encourage from finally making it into 'Norway' was huge, and her tiredness was forgotten.

They were back to where they'd started hours ago, by the white house. It all looked different in the dark. A crowd was standing by the entrance to the basement, and the Rufa'a family went to stand beside the others.

Living in the house was a married couple and their grown-up daughter. They all spoke very bad English, but Lily understood some of it.

"Hello peoples. Welcome to Norway. You can sleep here and get a good breakfast tomorrow" said the man.

Everyone felt their stomachs cry for food at the mentioning of it, but they were all too tired to ask for food before sleeping. As soon as they got settled in, they fell asleep. Lily and Amy lay beside each other, tucked into their sleeping-bags.

Amy had a secret, though. She had held it until now, but she wanted to share it with Lily. In her pocket Amy found a chocolate and showed it to Lily. It was a little bit melted and strangely shaped, but to Lily it was heaven. Not feeling hungry anymore the two girls soon fell asleep like the rest of the families, believing they would be able to sleep there until the morning. It was, after all, two o'clock in the night, and none of them could even imagine getting up before.

But, as all good things do, their sleep ended as four policemen entered the basement. Lily sat up in her sleeping-bag and couldn't believe her own eyes. Who were they kidding? It was two thirty in the morning!!

They each got half a minute to pack their bags, and the hill up to the other house, now the police station, had never been longer. Still almost sleeping, Lily was one of the lucky ones getting a bed in the police station. But not before they had been questioned by several detectives and investigators. 

Sleeping from four am until seven am, they were all grumpy when being awakened by a policewoman. After a long wait they were questioned by the same people again, and their questions hadn't changed either. After the fifth questioning they knew the questions by heart.

Answering different things each time, Lily knew they had little or no chance of getting to stay in 'Norway'. And she was right. After a twenty-minute wait, all the families were directed outside and were ordered to form lines. Standing behind everyone else, with only Amy behind her, Lily couldn't see the policeman talking to them. But she could _hear_ him all right, bellowing to the crowd.

"QUIET!!" he bellowed. Then he continued with a more calmed voice, "Only two of you are allowed to stay in Norway!"

The crowd whispered 'What?' and 'Yeah right!', and the policeman yelled 'Quiet' once again.

"Some of you didn't even ask to stay!" Lily saw Matthew looking down in embarrassment, as the last comment was obviously meant for him and the rest of the Rufa'as.

"And since the rest of you did so bad" continued the policeman, "we have called all your parents. You will have to do it all again!!"

Meanwhile, James, sitting in a comfy chair in his garden, was checking the wish-list for new wishes. After putting it down and going inside to get something to drink, he noticed that 'Being in a real life role-playing-game' was crossed out. The new wish was, in James' eyes, ridiculously girly, especially for Lily Evans. "4 – Play a game of Truth or Dare"! 


	8. Chapter 8

Lily and the rest of the teenagers from 'Refugee' had yelled him down, the policeman that told them they had to do it again. Luckily, the policeman had been joking, which they saw as quite logical afterwards. 

_Dear Ms. Lily Evans_

We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen for Head Girl of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the following year.

Your duties as Head Girl will be presented to you by the headmaster when you come to Hogwarts. Please come to the Headmaster's office after the feast September 1st.

Please contact signed about any difficulties or questions concerning the title of Head Girl.

PS: the Headmaster likes Lemon-drops.

Yours sincerely,  
Horace Slughorn  
Deputy Headmaster 

The letter had arrived while she was away, and it brought joy to both her and her parents. Petunia, on the other hand, was furious that her parents made her participate in the celebration of it. Lily wouldn't have mind Petunia not being there, though, especially when she had to bring her creepy boyfriend Brad Boyd.

The days passed, and Lily crossed out day after day on her calendar. She had put a big heart on the date of 1st September. However much she liked being at home, she always ended up going around in circles, wondering what to do.

Her homework was done a long time ago, and her new books had been bought, read and re-read. The last week of the vacation was like torture, waiting for something to happen. At least she had something to do at school, to make the days go by faster. Plus, Lily liked school. She loved learning new things, not to mention the school-castle. Who didn't love Hogwarts? She couldn't even imagine leaving it forever next summer. 

James' summer had been anything but quiet and boring. Boring was not a word in the Marauder dictionary. Not that they had one, but it wouldn't have been there had they had one.

The summer was James' favourite time of the year, playing pranks on the nearest neighbours and not having to worry about teachers, tests and bed-times. But when the time came, James was excited to go back to school, and he couldn't even imagine leaving Hogwarts for good next summer. 

August 31st came and went, and Lily was up at six o'clock in the morning on September 1st. The long wait was finally over, and she was going to see Mary and the others in just a few hours. After a long, hot shower, she dragged her trunk downstairs, making sure to make so much noise that everyone woke up.

"Lily, darling, what are you doing?" her mother called.

"I'm leaving today, mom. You have to get up, I don't wanna be late!"

"It's seven am, Lily, we're not going until nine!" her father called from the bathroom.

"Then why are you up already?" Lily asked smartly.

"Because you're so… idiot, that you have to wake us up at seven o'clock in the morning! Why don't you just be a LITTLE louder next time, I don't think they heard you in CHINA!" Lily heard Petunia yell from her bedroom.

"I'm leaving today!" said Lily.

"I know, so what?!" Petunia argued.

Lily shook her shoulders, not letting it bug her that her own big sister hated her and wanted her gone.

Mr and Mrs Evans, along with Petunia, said goodbye to Lily two and a half hours later, at the train station. Being muggles, they couldn't go through the gate.

"I'll miss you, darling" said her mother, hugging her tightly.

"Take care, sweetheart" said her father.

"Don't come back" Petunia mouthed at her, standing behind her parents so only Lily could see her.

"Goodbye, dear sister!" said Lily sweetly, and then when her parents turned she mouthed to her sister: "I love you!!" It was the one thing that would irritate Petunia the most.

Feeling good about finally going back, Lily stepped onto Platform 9 ¾. She looked for Mary, but when she couldn't find her she got on the train and found an empty compartment. Two minutes later, Mary came in.

"Hi!" said Lily cheerfully. Mary glared at her, not smiling.

"What? You're not happy about going back?" Lily asked.

"Not anymore" snapped Mary. She sat down by the window and looked out. The Platform was full of parents and younger siblings of the students, waving goodbye. There came a whistle-sound, signalizing that the train was leaving in a minute.

For a whole minute they sat there in silence, and then the train started moving. Lily leaned back and watched Mary still looking out.

"What happened?" she asked. Not curiously, but in a concerned way. Mary looked at her.

"It's Sirius."

"Black? What did he do to you??" Lily asked, her temper rising. If that idiot had done anything to her…

"He was totally flirting with that Ravenclaw, Cooper. I'm sure he likes her better than me!" Mary sobbed.

"Don't be stupid, of course he doesn't!" Lily brushed it away, relieved. This she had heard before, this she could handle.

"She's much prettier than I am. And she's a brunette."

"What does it matter if she's a brunette? You're blonde. And you're much prettier than her, anyway!" Lily comforted.

"Am not! And what if he thinks brunettes are hotter? I won't stand a chance; my hair is a mix of yellow and white!"

"I think your hair is lovely, and so does he. Besides, if your hair is all he cares about, you shouldn't worry about him. Find a guy who likes you for who you are, and not how you look!" Lily said, surprising herself. 'I've watched too much Ricky Lake and Oprah' she thought to herself.

"You really think so?" said Mary, shaking her head.

"Absolutely! And _you_'re his girlfriend, right? If he liked her better, he'd just gone out with her. But he went out with you, and that says something, right?"

Just then the door was opened from the outside, and Sirius was standing in the hallway. Right behind him was Lupin, Potter and Pettigrew.

"Hey babe!" smiled Sirius at Mary. She seemed to have forgiven him, and greeted him back.

"Now, who wants to play a game of Truth or Dare??" asked Sirius, practically jumping up and down over his own suggestion.

James sat down right next to Lily, nodding in agreement. Lily moved closer to the window, further away from him, but James didn't seem to notice.

"Who wants to start, then?" asked Mary.

"I do!" said Sirius quickly. "James, Truth or Dare?"

"Oh no!" muttered Lily, but no one heard her.

"I think… truth" said James. Lily looked at him in surprise.

"That's so lame!" said Sirius. "Come on, Gryffindors never pick Truth, James…"

"Now they do" James answered, and Sirius could do nothing but come up with a question for him.

Lily tried to make it look like she didn't care what Sirius was going to ask James, but everyone in the compartment saw that she was terrified of what might come.

"This is gonna be totally embarrassing for you James, but I've decided that you can still change your answer to Dare" Sirius tried, obviously struggling to find something to ask him. James just shook his head.

"What is your worst nightmare?" Sirius asked awhile after realizing there was no way James was changing his answer.

"That's _so_ overused and boring!" Remus shot in. The others agreed, nodding their heads.

"I don't have anything else, blame James for picking Truth!" Sirius defended himself.

"That any harm comes to Lily!" said James after a while

Lily turned bright pink, and James shifted in his seat. Mary blinked at Lily, but she ignored her friend.

"Well, everyone knew that would come!" Mary broke the awkward silence.

"Yeah, though it's quite the cliché, James" agreed Remus.

"Well, it's my turn" said James. "Remus, what do you say?"

Remus looked at him seriously for a second, and James blinked at him as a sign that he understood what he meant.

"I'll pick Dare" said Remus. James smiled and Sirius closed his eyes, leaned back and waited for the Dare.

"You have to…" said James, figuring out something that would be the perfect Dare.

"You have to…" he said again, still thinking.

"Come on, James. Have you lost it completely?" said Peter, who had been silent until then.

"I'm thinking. My brilliant mind needs time to work. Now shush!" said James, irritated.

"You have to…" James still couldn't think of anything.

"Oh, come on!" said Lily impatiently. James looked at her before deciding what the Dare should be.

"I Dare you to stand up during the welcome-feast, and sing Happy Birthday to Dumbledore" said James, satisfied with himself.

"No problem" said Remus with a grin. James' smile faded when he saw Remus' reaction.

"And now it's my turn, right?" Sirius nodded, also surprised at Remus' reaction.

"Lily, Truth or Dare?" he asked. Lily breathed in, before deciding to go with Dare. No one was going to tell her she wasn't brave enough.

"I'll have Dare, please" said Lily. James opened his mouth in surprise.

"Oh close your mouth, Potter" she said. "You look like a fish out of oxygen." James did what she had told him.

"I Dare you to…" Remus started. Lily felt her heart pounding faster. 'Please let him say something that doesn't have to do with Potter!' she pleaded in her mind. 'Please!'

"I Dare you to accompany me in singing at the feast" said Remus, satisfied with his own brilliance.

"You don't expect _me_ to _sing_ in front of _everyone_, including the _Headmaster_?" Lily asked with closed eyes, like if she held them closed for a while she would wake up from a dream when she opened them, and all of this would only have been a dream. A very weird dream.

"Yes, I do expect _you_ to _sing_ in front of _everybody_ at school!" said Remus. Lily opened her eyes and sighed in defeat.

"Is it even his birthday?" she asked.

"Not for another three months" laughed James, who after all was the one who had dared Remus into it in the first place.

"All right, my turn anyway" said Lily. "Peter, do you want Truth or Dare?" Peter almost fell out of his seat when Lily said his name.

"Truth" he said in a whisper.

"All right" said Lily. "If you could be the best in the world at something, what would it be?" Peter needed no time at all to think.

"At quiddich" he said, looking at Sirius.

"Nice, Peter!" said Sirius. "Now it's your turn."

"Mary"

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Uhm, Truth or Dare?" asked Peter.

"Truth" she said, not caring what the others thought.

"Okay, name one thing you would like to change about yourself."

Lily looked at Peter, wondering what was going on inside his little head to ask such a question. But no one else seemed to think it was a rude thing to ask. Maybe it was just she that hadn't played Truth or Dare before.

"My teeth. They're kind'a crooked" said Mary.

"They're not! They're absolutely perfect!" said Sirius.

"Thanks, but they're not…" said Mary. Sirius was going to argue, but Mary shot a word in first.

"So it's my turn, Sirius. _Truth_ or Dare?" said Mary, pausing after Truth so that Sirius would understand that she wanted him to choose Truth. Sirius didn't seem to get it, though.

"Dare." Mary cleared her throat, before saying:

"Are you _sure_ you want Dare, and not _Truth_?" she said slowly.

"Yea… No. I want Truth" said Sirius, finally taking the hint. Mary smiled, glad that he had fallen into her trap.

"Who do you like best, me or that Cooper-girl?" she asked. Sirius was taken aback by her question. He shook his head, before opening his mouth to talk.

"And don't you lie, I saw you flirting with her at the Platform. You like brown hair better than blonde hair, don't you?" Mary continued, moving away from Sirius.

"I do no such thing!" he finally managed to cut in. "I _definitely_ like you better than her!" he said.

Mary's eyes turned from sadness to happiness in a second, and she moved closer to him again. Sirius breathed out in relief, glad that he had survived the attack.

"We better change into robes soon" said James. "I'll go first."

And with that he left the compartment. 

James found an empty toilet, and changed into robes as quickly as he could. Before leaving, he found the list and checked that "Play a game of Truth or Dare" was crossed out. It was, and instead it said "3 – Sing in public"

James couldn't believe his luck. Who was it that was going to sing in front of everyone at the feast tonight? Lily! 


	9. Chapter 9

Leaving the train, Mary and Lily got on one carriage, while the boys got on another. Both the girls enjoyed their last first sight of the castle and the grounds. It was more beautiful than they remembered, with the green grass, the red and yellow flowers and the blue sky, all leading their eyes back to the castle.

The feeling of being back filled them, and Mary squealed in delight, while Lily secretly did the same thing on the inside. But Lily's joy of being back soon faded, thinking about the upcoming feast.

She, the Head Girl, was going to sing Happy Birthday to a man that not only happened to be the Headmaster of the school she was currently attending, but who also wasn't born on any day in the near past or future.

The carriages stopped, and Mary jumped out, closely followed by Lily. In the Entrance Hall, Professor Slughorn was standing in-between all the children rushing past him to get to the feast. When he saw Lily, he called out for her.

"Miss Evans!"

Lily walked over to him, and Mary stopped in the doorway leading into the Great Hall, waiting for her.

"I trust you got the letter I sent you?" he said.

"I got it, Professor. And I'm very honoured" answered Lily.

"Good, good. Now, the Head Girl and Boy always sit at their house's tables, but nearest to the High Table. Closest to the Headmaster and the teachers, you know."

Lily's mouth opened, but she couldn't press out a single word.

"I understand that this whole thing overwhelm you. Good luck, Miss Evans. I'm confident that you will do a good job. You can go now."

Lily hurried away without asking questions. Mary had overheard the whole conversation, and was laughing like crazy. Lily, who didn't find it quite as amusing, went to find Remus. If she was going to sit up front, then he was too!

"Remus" she said, as she passed the Marauders. They'd already sat down in their usual seats, which were the ones in the back.

"You're coming with me!" Lily said and dragged him out of his chair.

"Where are we going?" asked Remus confused, while Mary took his seat next to Sirius.

"Someone just told me I have to sit up front, and then so are you."

"Don't worry, Evans. We'll sing too, when the time comes" said Sirius.

"You will?" said Lily hopefully, stopping.

"No…"

"How childish!" said Lily, before grabbing Remus and walking away.

James looked after the two of them walking towards the teachers, envying Remus for holding her hand. Remus, on the other hand, was having a hard time ignoring the stares he got from all the Gryffindors along the table.

The feast started not long after, when the first-years entered the Great Hall. Their faces turned from excitement to fear to happiness to awe in seconds. Lily remembered her first day here, but quickly shook it away, thinking that now wasn't the time to be thinking about things like that.

"Ravenclaw!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Slytherin!"

The Sorting hat went on for what seemed like forever to Lily. Though when you are full of fear for what you have to do next, time tends to seem like it's stopped.

"And now, before we enjoy our lovely feast" said Dumbledore, after the last first-year had been sorted, "I have some announcements to make. Professor Bayhorne has decided to retire, and Professor Linguest has become our new Defence Against the Dark Arts-teacher."

Professor Linguest, a large woman with dull, brown hair and a pair of golden glasses got up, and there was some clapping.

"What is more" Dumbledore continued, "Professor Slughorn has agreed to take over Professor Bayhorne's former position as Head of the Slytherin house." There was more clapping, as Professor Slughorn got up and bowed elegantly.

"Now, there are a few things I would like to inform you all of. One, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden to all students." Dumbledore looked at the Marauders especially. Sirius grinned sheepishly.

"Two, the Quiddich-trials are held next weekend, and anyone who wants to tryout should contact the Captain of their team. And last, but not least, I have been reminded yet again by our caretaker, Mr. Johnson, to tell you all that no magic is allowed in the corridors and in-between classes." Again he looked at the Marauders.

"That, I think, was all. Now, enjoy the feast!" That was Dumbledore's final words, and with that the empty plates were filled magically. There were hams and steaks, chocolate and cream, everything you can possibly imagine.

Lily had no appetite; she was like frozen to her seat. She so much didn't want to stand up and sing. But Remus, being stronger than she had thought, grabbed her arm and dragged her up. They were now both standing on their seats, and the Hall went quiet.

"He said 'Stand up', not 'on your chairs'!" whispered Remus in his ear. She could see from the corner of her eye that Mary, Sirius and Peter were laughing at them.

"Never mind that, stepping down now will seem stupid" answered Remus. 

The Headmaster got up and asked: "Did you want to say anything, Miss Evans? Mr. Lupin?"

"Yes Professor" said Remus simply. And then he started singing.

_Happy birthday to you_

Lily froze again, not singing a word. Remus looked at her, and she sang quietly, but loud enough to hear.

_Happy birthday to you  
Happy birthday dear Professor Dumbledore  
Happy birthday to you!_

The Hall was quiet. Lily felt her cheeks burning, her head spinning, and then she fell. Professor Slughorn was quick with his wand, and stopped her from falling to the ground. James had also taken out his wand, but couldn't think of a spell that would help before it was too late.

Remus got down from his seat, and helped Lily up. She was still red and shaky, but she managed to sit up straight. The normal chattering had started again when she had fallen, but somehow it wasn't normal. They were all talking about her!

Dumbledore had an amused smile on his face. He laughed, before thanking them.

"Well, thank you for the lovely song, Mr Lupin and Miss Evans." Then he sat down.

For the rest of the feast, Lily kept her head down and didn't as much as touch her food. Remus, sitting beside her, ate all he could manage to eat before the plates were empty and they were instructed to go to bed.

Lily wished she could go to bed together with the rest of the Gryffindors, but she remembered what the letter had said; she had to go up to the Headmaster's office.

Right outside the office she bumped into Lucius Malfoy, a seventh year Slytherin bully. It hit her at once, _he_ was the Head Boy. She hadn't even thought about who would be, but she had definitely not hoped that it would be him.

"Evans. What are _you_ doing here?" Malfoy asked quite rudely, looking at her like she was something really disgusting.

"I'm the new Head Girl, if you must know. And I expect you are the Head Boy?" she asked, though already knowing the answer.

"Yes, I am" he said. "I cannot believe I have to share a Common Room with filth like you!"

Lily had heard it before, but it still stung a bit when someone mentioned her blood. Some people, like the Malfoys, saw her as a muggle and not a witch. Filth wasn't the worst she had been called.

"Lemon-drop" said Lily, trying to ignore Malfoy's comment. The gargoyle opened, and Lily stepped in. Going up the stairs, she heard Malfoy's voice behind her.

"How'd you know that? Why did he tell you and not me?" he asked.

"You were chosen for Head-Boy, I thought you'd be smarter than that. Unless, of course, you letter didn't say anything at all about Lemon-drops" replied Lily.

Malfoy opened his mouth to speak, but then thought of the letter and shut his mouth. Lily knocked on the Headmaster's door, and it swung open. Inside, Dumbledore was sitting in his large chair in front of all the pictures of past Headmasters.

Lily had been in the office many times before, and nothing still caught her attention as much as the Phoenix. The bird was now full of colour, unlike the last time she had been there. He had been old and grey then. Obviously he had been reborn over the summer.

"Please sit down, Miss Evans. Mr Malfoy."

Two chairs magically appeared right behind them, and they both sat down.

"Congratulations, you have been chosen for Head Girl and Boy for this year. I expect you both to behave yourselves towards each other and the other students. Remember, you are role models for many of the younger students here. I expect a lot of you this year."

Lily and Malfoy exchanged glances.

"You will have your own dorms, as Heads. You will have separate bedrooms and bathrooms, but you will share a common-room. This will hopefully help you communicate better, and you will then work better together. I suggest you sort out any difficulties the next few days, so that you can enjoy your last year here at Hogwarts. Any questions? Okay, then I will inform you that you have a Prefect-meeting scheduled Saturday in a week. You may leave now." Dumbledore finished.

The two Heads got up and walked to the door.

"Oh, and Miss Evans?" said Dumbledore. Both Lily and Malfoy turned to look at the Headmaster.

"I hope you know that my birthday isn't until December, but thank you anyway for the lovely song!" he smiled.

Lily forced a smile and left.

Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor common-room, James had found the list again. The 'Sing in public'-wish had been crossed out, and instead it said: "2 – Dye my hair black".

James laughed, this wouldn't be so difficult. It wouldn't be difficult at all. With all that he and the Marauders had done, dying someone's was the easiest thing in the world.

Lily entered the new common-room after Malfoy, and didn't even stop to take it all in before hurrying upstairs in the direction of the lions. Malfoy headed towards the snakes.

The next day, after a good night's sleep, everything seemed brighter. The sun was shining, and Lily had all day to do whatever she wanted, as school didn't start until tomorrow. She went into the bathroom, which was larger than she remembered it to be from last night. The mirror was large, decorated with stone-lions and flowers. So was the sink, the tub, the shower and yes, the toilet.

She closed the window, before climbing into the shower and taking a long, hot shower. After getting dressed, but still halfway sleeping, and without even bothering to comb her hair or put on make-up, Lily made her way down to the Great Hall.

As she walked through the corridors, people passing her seemed to whisper about her. She remembered last night, and with a sigh she continued. Before long she was inside the Great Hall, and went to find Mary sitting with the Marauders.

When Remus looked up at her, he laughed out loud. Lily looked at him strangely.

"What is it? Is it still the singing you're on about? You sang too, remember?!" said Lily angrily.

"No, no. Here you go, Lily."

Remus conjured a mirror and handed it to her, and looking at her reflection Lily felt dizzy again. She sat down on the nearest chair empty, which happened to be the one beside James.

"How could this happen?" Lily asked no one in particular.

"Well, let's see. You could have been hexed, or someone could've…" Sirius started, but he was cut off by Lily.

"All right, all right!"

"I think it looks okay" said Peter.

"I agree. The colour suits you, Lily. I mean, not that you weren't pretty as a red-head…"

"Actually, Lily, I think you're beautiful no matter what, but…" James started.

"_What_ did you want?" Lily asked, stopping his flattering.

"Well, I know how you can change it back, if you want your old hair-colour back."

"You do?" Lily's eyes opened wide and he looked at James hopefully.

James took in her beauty, even with black hair, and forgot the words.

"Do you?" asked Lily again.

"Yeah. Sure!" said James, finally finding his voice again. 


	10. Chapter 10

Lily had always wanted black hair, but the shock of finding out someone had secretly changed her hair colour, no matter what colour, was too much for her to be able to like her new hair colour.

James hadn't paid too much attention to whether or not Lily liked the new hair colour. All he had done was to check the list for another wish; wish number one!

After breakfast, he excused himself and sprinted up the stairs to the Fat Lady. He told her the password and climbed in. The common-room was nearly empty, the only people in the room were two second years, sitting in a corner doing their homework.

James sat down in a comfy chair by the fire and pulled out the list. He paused for a minute, thinking that this was the moment he had been waiting for. At this minute, he regretted nothing of what he had done. And to think he had almost given it up!

He unfolded the small piece of paper, and saw…

Wish number two.

"What?" he said to himself, "This must be some kind of mistake!"

He looked at it again, making sure his eyes weren't pulling pranks on him. Nope, wish number nine still wasn't crossed out. James swore out loud, causing the second-years in the corner to start giggling.

As the common-room started filling up, James put the list away. Instead he went up to his dorm to find a piece of parchment to get his thoughts gathered.

Dear… piece of parchment

I don't have a diary, but at this moment I wish I had. I need to clear my thoughts, get them out of my head…

**I know what you mean. Don't you hate it when that happens?**

James looked at the parchment in front of him, his mouth dropping. Who was writing back to him in bold font?

Who are you? he wrote back, and then he waited for a reply.

**I'm a piece of parchment! The last thing I am is a black dog!**

"Sirius, where are you??" yelled James, and after seconds he saw Sirius coming out from under Remus' bed, looking disappointed.

"Holy Shrieking Shack, how did you fit under there?" asked James silently. He wasn't even sure he wanted to know.

"I'm like a snake, James. I can get into a pencil-case if someone dares me to it! But how did you know it was me?" Sirius asked. James raised his eyebrows, and then they heard the door open.

Remus came in, whistling a sad song.

"What's up with you?" asked Sirius, looking at Remus' sad face. Remus just sighed.

"I've got our schedules. We have double History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs first thing Monday morning" he said. Then he sighed again. Sirius looked at him weirdly.

"That's like the best thing you can have on a Monday morning. You get to sleep even longer!" he said, waving his arms like crazy. James and Remus backed away not to get hit.

"You don't understand. This is our final year. NEWTs year. We have to pay attention!"

"Wrong. You have to pay attention!" said Sirius, waving his finger.

"I won't let you cheat off of me this year, Padfoot. You have to learn for yourself."

"Why did I even become your friend if you won't let me cheat off of you?" asked Sirius, sitting down on Remus' bed.

"Because, I'm the brains of the Marauders, remember?" said Remus. "Who planned the Waterson-attack? The Heygrone-prank? The Thombhouse-joke? Huh, huh, huh?" Remus pushed Sirius off his bed and sat down himself.

James grabbed the opportunity to flee the room. It was getting too crowdy for his liking.

Just before he left, he heard his two best-mates say:

"Well, you _wanted_ to have your head shaved!" 

"No! I wanted to _shave_ my head. Not to have some psycho maniac shave it while I'm sleeping!"

At that moment, something clicked inside James' head. The thing he had just been so frustrated over suddenly made sense.

He kept on walking, out of the castle and down to the lake. He ignored Peter yelling his name, pretending that he didn't hear him. The lake was cold, even though it was only September. James took off his shoes and socks, and sat down on one of the rocks at the shore.

Back up in the castle, Lily had just finished re-colouring her hair. She dumped down on the sofa next to Mary. She was reading 'Hex and Here', a magazine on celebrities, fashion and make-up. Lily read over her shoulder for a while, but soon got bored.

"How about skiing?" she asked Mary, who looked up from the magazine looking bewildered.

"It's September, Lily. Where do yah wanna ski?" she replied.

"In here. I know just the spell!" said Lily, standing up. Mary pulled her back down without looking away from her magazine.

"We will do no such thing as to turn this dorm into a freakin' snow-mountain" she said, sounding alarmingly much like Professor McGonagall. Except the swearing…

"All right, but I haven't heard any suggestions from you!" said Lily, defending her suggestion.

"Why don't you go do my homework?" asked Mary sweetly.

"We don't have any homework yet!" whispered Lily into her ear, like sharing a secret.

"What?? Oh…" Mary was off in another world and wouldn't come back until the last page of the magazine had been turned. Lily knew because she'd tried it every single month, which was how often Hex and Here came out.

Lily got up again, and went down to the common-room.

"You know I've done loads of stuff to help the Marauders!" said Remus angrily. "Don't you even try to pretend that you don't know that!"

"All right, all right. You've done loads of stuff to help out. I've done heaps of stuff!" Sirius replied.

"Loads is much more than heaps, just so you know!" Remus informed him of.

"Is not! Heaps is so much more than loads there should be a rule that everyone knows it!" Sirius said, trying to make sense but really failing.

Remus just looked at him strangely.

"Well, let's ask Evans, then!" said Remus, noticing that she had just entered the common-room. "She's like got a whole dictionary in her head…"

"Whatever" said Sirius.

"You're afraid you'll lose!" accused Remus. "You are afraid!"

"Am not!" he said, and then he went over to Lily. "Evans!"

"Yes" answered Lily, looking at Sirius. 'Now what does he want?' she thought to herself.

"Which is more, heaps or loads?" he asked, and then he waited for the verdict.

"I think…" she started, but then she paused. She knew the answer, but Sirius looked so hopeful. She'd heard him arguing with Remus, and she knew Remus always won. She caught herself feeling sorry for the guy, and before she could stop herself she blurted out, "heaps is more."

Sirius finally drew his breath again after holding it while she had been thinking, and used the air in his lungs to yell out to Remus a couple of words that no one really knew what meant.

Remus looked strangely at Lily, knowing that Lily knew that he knew that Lily knew that they both knew Sirius was wrong. Lily ignored his stare, and headed for the portrait-hole.

Down by the lake, James was almost freezing his feet off. He got up and away from the water, pulled out his wand and preformed an un-freezing charm on his feet. They immediately felt warm, and he put on his socks and shoes again.

Just then he saw someone walking down towards the lake. He grabbed the shoe he hadn't put on yet and hid behind the nearest big rock.

The person walking was, as you might have guessed by now, Lily. James, still hiding behind a big rock, watched her sit down on the same rock he had been sitting on just seconds ago. She then leaned back and lay down on the flat rock. 

James had an inner struggle on whether or not to go talk to her. He decided on the latter, and walked away as silently as he could. But, it wasn't silent enough.

"James, is that you?" Lily asked, and James stopped dead in his tracks.

"Yes, hello" he said, and went over to her.

They sat there for a while in silence, and then James grabbed the opportunity. He had to get her to change her hair-colour herself.

"I thought you looked nice with black hair…" he said. Lily looked at him.

"Really?" she asked, smiling nervously.

"Really" he confirmed, smiling too. Oh how he loved her smile.

"Maybe… If you gave it a chance…" he continued.

"No, I don't know…" she said, looking at her feet. "I mean, I think I know who did it."

James' heart started pounding even faster. If she knew about him, then… How did she know, anyway? He hadn't told anyone. Maybe she'd set him up, and she'd known from the beginning?

"You know…?" he started, also staring at his feet.

"She's the only person I ever told."

"Excuse me, what?"

"That I wanted to dye my hair black. But, well, I wanted to do it myself, and not to have it come as a complete shock."

"Wait a minute, who are we talking about?"

"Mary. Your best friend's girlfriend, remember?"

"Oh. Right."

"I mean, I know she did it, but I haven't told her that I know yet."

It wasn't until then she realized what she was doing; pouring out her heart to _James Potter_!

"I'm sorry, I have to go…" she said suddenly, and got up. "Oh, and by the way James –"

"Yes?"

"– Don't take this personally!"

With that she took out her wand, and before James had the time to defend himself she put a lighter version of 'obliviate' on him. It would erase his memory from just before he woke up until now.

James was left on the rock, alone and confused. How had he ended up here all of a sudden?

He didn't feel like getting up, so he just sat there. Looking up at the castle, his thoughts fled back to his earliest days at Hogwarts.

He remembered coming to Platform 9 ¾ six years ago. It was a warm 1st September the day young James was getting on the express for the first time. The Platform was crowded, as it was always on September 1st, and James was just saying goodbye to his mother when he saw a young girl about his age, with long, red hair and a short, white dress.

He helped her with her luggage, but didn't have the courage to ask for her name. She thanked him shyly, before Sirius suddenly turned up. The two of them fought, over what he didn't remember anymore, but then they both ended up in Gryffindor…

The trouble with Lily started when she became friends with Severus Snape, a slimy git and a Slytherin. But, Lily liked him, and she wouldn't hear a bad word about him. Whenever James and his friends would pull a prank on the Slytherins, Lily would be furious.

James only wanted to prove his point that Snape was bad for her, for anyone, but instead of following his advice she started dating the guy. They were together for more than a year, and it made James sick.

Then, in the fifth year, Severus was given the Slytherin prefect-title. So was Elaine Haygrone.

Even though Lily was also a prefect, she didn't find out until half a year later…

PANG

James was scared out of his daydreaming by Remus, who had finally found him after searching the whole castle for an hour.

"In the name of Merlin, what did you do that for?" he asked, getting up.

Remus was just smiling, which made it all a bit more irritating.

"I bet you have something to do with this also" continued James, pointing at the rock he had been sitting on. "The last thing I remember was going to sleep _in my own bed_. Now you tell me, or you're gonna end up out there beside the giant squid!"

"Prongs, are you all right? You woke up in your own bed this morning!" said Remus.

"Don't lie. You know just as well as I do that you and or Padfoot moved me here. Did I miss breakfast?" he asked, and without waiting for an answer he started towards the castle.

Following James, Remus tried to collect and organize the facts. James had to be kidding.

"You already had breakfast" he said.

"So you didn't think it was enough to move me down to the lake, you also thought it would be fun to feed me while I was sleeping? I want the pictures you took, because knowing you I know you took loads of pictures for the Prankbook" said James, not stopping.

The Prankbook was the book about all the pranks the Marauders had preformed during their years at Hogwarts. Had it been a normal book it would've been full several years ago, but this was no normal book. If anyone but Marauders read the book, it would bite the nose off the poor person. Except, you know, the person reading it was a worthy replacement. It would be preserved for the next generation pranksters at Hogwarts…

Inside the castle Lily had went back to her dorm again, and found that Mary had left. Lucious Malfoy, however, was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading.

"Hello" Lily said civilly.

Malfoy didn't greet her back, but Lily had decided to try to follow Dumbledore's advice, and clear out their difficulties. Except first they had to be able to talk to each other, of course.

"What're you reading?" she asked casually. Malfoy closed his book and held it up for her to read, still not talking.

'How To Become The Best Head-Boy and How Not To Let The Head-Girl Get All The Honour'. Oh…

She sat down, and Malfoy started reading his book again.

"Should we prepare for the prefect-meeting?" she asked after a while.

Malfoy sighed and closed his book again.

"You mean now?" he asked, making his voice sound like he was talking to a five-year-old.

"No, I mean sometime. Before the meeting, that is." He didn't answer, and she gave up. She went out to find Mary and give her a piece of her mind about colouring her hair.

Meanwhile, James still believed neither Sirius nor Remus that they hadn't had anything to do with his 'waking up' by the lake. They explained it to him over and over again; he had been awake long before he had gone down to the lake.

"Okay Prongs, I'll list everything you did before you went down there."

List.

The list!

"Okay, I believe you. Man, I can't believe you fell for that!" he said, though he still didn't believe a word they were saying.

Remus and Sirius looked strangely at him, before shaking their heads and going back to doing whatever.

James carefully put the list in his pocket and went to the library. The moment he stepped in, an alarm went off and Madam Pince came storming towards him.

"You are banned from the library for another whole month, Mr. Potter. If you want a book, rules say I have to get it for you while you wait outside."

Oh yeah, he'd almost forgot. He'd never prank anyone in the library again…

"I don't need any books, thanks" he said, and left.

The only place he could be alone now was the owlery. Luckily there were no one up there, and now only the owls could read over his shoulder. Wait –

"No, that would be too crazy. Birds can't read!" James assured himself. 

Then he took out the list.

'This is the moment I've waited for!' he thought to himself.

'I'll finally find out Lily's number one wish…" He opened it and saw that wish number nine was crossed out. Instead it said…

"1 – Go on a date with LM"

James couldn't believe his eyes. All this time he had been hoping… dreaming… that now that she was over Snape, that… No… Not another Slytherin. He couldn't bare it! Deep inside he had always wished… hoped… dreamed… that it would be him. With her. But no, not now. Anyone before him… And now she had fallen for her fellow Head… It was just too much!

He sat there for a while, watching the birds flying. How happy they were, flying. Happy, as they were coming in through the window. And jumping out.

AN: I've changed my mind... again! I'm adding another chapter, and it's the last one. I'm adding it right now, actually. THEN the story will be finished. Ah... Oh well. Enjoy:)


	11. Chapter 11

Please, don't go…" she said, grabbing his hand as he turned to leave, "Stay!"

"You've been absolutely horrible to me, Lily. I don't like you anymore."

"But – I love you!"

"I'm sorry, it's too late" he said.

She didn't want to let go of his hand, but when she looked deep into his eyes she knew he was right. She didn't deserve him. It hurt, but she slowly let go.

"Good bye" he said, "forever!"

Then she watched him leave. A single tear ran down her face as he disappeared into the woods. She was all alone now, crying openly. She fell to the ground, her heart hurting more than it ever had before.

"Evans… Evans!"

What?

"Evans, wake up!"

Huh?

"LILY EVANS!"

She opened her eyes, and looked straight into a pair of grey eyes.

"What? Why? Who – What're you doing here?" she whispered.

"You were screaming. I didn't want to get blamed for anything if someone came in and heard you!" Malfoy said slyly, getting out of her way without helping her up.

She was on the floor, she now noticed. She must've fallen from the bed.

She watched Malfoy leave the room without moving. It wasn't until a couple of minutes later, when she tried to get up, that she noticed she _couldn't_ get up.

Panicking, she tried to call for help. After a while she realised that she was either deaf or mute. A couple of minutes passed, but nothing happened.

"Someone will miss me in class, right?" she thought to herself.

Hours passed, but no one came. The tears had stopped a long while ago; crying wouldn't help her now. The floor was cold and hard, and the only sounds she could hear were the occasional opening and closing of doors.

She wished she could scream the foulest things at Malfoy, and if anyone ever found her it'd be no problem for her to say them to his face.

Thinking was all she could do, because no matter how hard she tried, sleep wouldn't come to her. Sleep could be her only escape, if only for the moment.

When the dark finally began to fall, she was hungry, thirsty and cold. Tears were again rolling down her cheeks. Rescue would not come, and the magic was not yet wearing off. She had been hoping that it would, but she was just as tied to the floor and just as mute as she had been in the morning.

The nightmare form the same morning still haunted her. It was like she could hear him say it; 'It's too late. Goodbye… forever!'

Something didn't feel right. His gut told him something was wrong, and it had been all day. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Poppy, is she here?" said McGonagall, obviously stressed out.

Her prefects-meeting was supposed to start half an hour ago, and she was missing her Head Girl. Lily Evans hadn't attended classes all day either, she had been informed by the other teachers. They'd all assumed she'd been at the Hospital Wing, because a top student like Miss Lily Evans would not just skip class.

"I'm sorry, Minerva, who are you talking about?" asked a bewildered Poppy. McGonagall stopped and breathed for a moment, trying to calm down. Stress did this to her sometimes.

"Lily Evans, I can't find her" she said calmly.

"No" said Madam Pomfrey, shaking her head. "I haven't seen her here in a while. Why?"

"I can't find her… She was supposed to be at a meeting now!"

"Have you tried her dorm?"

McGonagall said nothing but a short "thank you", and then she was off. Madam Pomfrey only shook her head, fearing the worst and preparing for a patient, just in case. It wasn't that she was psychic, just suspicious of the abnormal.

"Ms. Evans" McGonagall called. "Ms. Evans!"

But Lily had finally gone to sleep; after lying on the floor for twelve hours she was so exhausted she couldn't stay awake another minute.

McGonagall knocked on Lily's door three times and waited for an answer. When it didn't come, she carefully opened the door so that she could look in and see if she was there.

She wasn't in her bed, that's for sure. Opening the door a little more, she could see the large wooden desk in front of the window. Stepping inside she saw something on the floor. Noticing it was breathing, McGonagall hurried over and with a small shriek she realised it was Lily lying on the floor.

Her position wasn't natural at all. She was lying with her arms like glued to her body, facing the ceiling. She was sleeping, and even that wasn't natural because you wouldn't normally sleep on the floor.

Not knowing exactly what to do, McGonagall carefully tried to wake her up.

"Miss Evans? Miss Evans…" she said, but Lily didn't move.

Deciding she _had to_ wake her up, McGonagall tried lifting her arm. Only problem was it wouldn't move.

"What in the name of Merlin am I going to do?" she asked herself, as she gave up trying to move Lily in any way. She didn't want to leave Lily just lying there, but on the other hand it would be of better help to go get Dumbledore.

Deciding to go with the latter, she got up and zoomed down the corridor to the Headmaster's office.

"It's a simple freezing charm, Minerva. You should calm down. Poppy, would you get Minerva some tea, please? Thank you" said Dumbledore warmly. Lily was safe in a bed at the far end of the Hospital Wing, after being de-frozen and warmed up a bit. She was now eating a hot chicken-soup, which would cure any cold.

"Now, if you'll all excuse me, I would like a word with Miss Evans alone, please" said the Headmaster, smiling at the two ladies.

"We'll be in my office" said Poppy Pomfrey, and she walked into her office with McGonagall following her carefully, not to spill any of the hot tea.

"Lily Evans" started the Headmaster, talking more gravely and seriously now that they were alone. "A simple freezing charm done by yourself would require your wand to be in your hand. As I noticed, it was not, and therefore you, correct me if I'm wrong, could not have preformed the spell on yourself. Even if by accident" he added, looking at her.

Lily found the situation quite uncomfortable. It was very weird to be in the position where she could either rat out Malfoy, make him pay for all the miseries he'd ever caused her, or she could keep her mouth shut and forget about the whole thing.

"You have a choice here, Miss Evans" said Dumbledore as though he'd just heard what she was thinking. "Just remember this; others might end up like you back there, only not that lucky."

Lily looked up at him. His eyes were so calm, yet so worrying. She drew her breath and opened her mouth to say it, when the window suddenly burst open and a beautiful brown owl flew in through the window.

It hooted once, before heading for Dumbledore. It landed on his shoulder, and Dumbledore took the letter, gave the owl a little snack that seemed to have come from out of nowhere, and then the owl was off.

Dumbledore stepped away, opening the letter when he reached the window the owl had come in through. The look on his face didn't reveal anything, and Lily only just managed to control her curiosity.

Finally Dumbledore folded his letter and walked over to her bed again. Clearing his throat, he handed her the letter.

"You're the fellow Head, I feel you have a right to read this" he said simply.

Lily's heart was pounding faster now, wondering what in the name of Merlin was in the letter. She opened it quickly, and unfolded a green letter with curly handwriting. She could hardly make out what it said, but it went something like this: 

_Professor Dumbledore._

This is my letter of resignation. I have decided to leave Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry due to unforeseen events, and will therefore not be able to continue in the position as Head Boy. My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

With best wishes for the future,  
Lucius Abraxas Malfoy

Lily leaned back in her bed, breathing deeply, before folding the letter and returning it to Dumbledore. He looked at her, and for the first time since McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey had left the serious look on his face was gone. Instead he looked comforting, in an odd sort of way, considering he's the Headmaster.

Still, Lily couldn't shake away the thought that she'd driven someone out of the school. It had been him that had frozen her to the floor, yes, but she was still the reason why he'd left, wasn't she?

"He was considering leaving last year also" said the Headmaster lightly. "If you read the Daily Prophet, you'll see why in a couple of days. I think he won't mind me saying; he's been offered a job at the Ministry, despite his low age."

Madam Pomfrey's office door opened, and the two women came back into the room.

"If you don't mind, Headmaster, I think my patient might need some rest. Thank you" said Madam Pomfrey, starting to mix a sleeping potion for Lily.

"Actually, we were just done" said Dumbledore. "Sleep well, Miss Evans, and I'll be looking out for a new Head as soon as I possibly can."  
With a smile he left the Hospital Wing, leaving a still utterly confused Lily to deal with her own thoughts.

"You've been through a lot these last few hours" said Madam Pomfrey. "You mind works on problems and difficult matters while you're sleeping, and you look like you could need some sleep."

'Why, thank you' thought Lily sarcastically. Within the minute she was fast asleep.

"Please, don't go…" she said, grabbing his hand as he turned to leave, "Stay!"

"You've been absolutely horrible to me, Lily. I don't like you anymore."

"But – I love you!"

"I'm sorry, it's too late" he said.

She'd had the same dream as she had the last couple of days; he was saying goodbye and all she could do was to watch him go.

Feeling the sunshine coming through the windows, Lily opened her eyes slowly, taking in the wonderful smell of fresh flowers. Like still dreaming, she looked around, noticing she was in the Hospital Wing.

What was new was the person sitting next to her bed, which was quite the surprise this early in the morning. Not knowing what to say, there was an awkward pause.

"Ehm, what time is it?" asked Lily casually.

"Twelve fifteen" said James, not even looking at his wristwatch. She sighed.

"I – I came here because Dumbledore asked me to give you a message" he said, handing her a note. Lily looked at it briefly, and then looked up at James again.

"Congratulations!" she said, sitting up straight in her bed.

"Thank you" said James shyly, finally looking away. There was another pause, this one not as tense and awkward as the last one. It was James who finally broke it.

"Well, then I'll be off" he said, getting up. "_Goodbye, Lily_!"

Lily almost choked as she heard him say it, and she tried to hold back the tears. She did manage, but only just. He'd reached the door now, if she was going to say something it'd have to be now.

"James!" she called after him. But he was already half-way through the door, and didn't hear her.

'Now or never' she thought, as she jumped out of her bed and ran towards the door, catching him just before he got to the staircase.

"Lily, shouldn't you be in bed?" he asked, and she could hear that his concern was sincere. A single tear ran down her cheek, as she couldn't force herself to say the words.

"What's wrong?" he asked, "Look, I really think you should get back to bed! Madam Pomfrey is holding you in there for a reason, right?"

Lily nodded, and followed James back into bed in defeat.

'I was never brave…' she thought to herself, 'but self-pity won't help me.'

James had taken a hold of her hand as he guided her back to the Hospital Wing. He was absolutely thrilled that she didn't let go of his hand, and even though she was crying, he had to keep himself from smiling. Just when they were opening the Hospital Wing again, Lily mumbled something. James turned around to face her.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that" he said, holding the door halfway open.

"I said… there's a… uhm… Hogsmeade weekend this… eh… weekend… and I was just… you know, wondering… if, eh…" with red cheeks and a high pulse, she tried to get the words out right. It was proving to be more difficult than she'd have thought.

"You really mean that??" said James, letting go of the door so that it closed itself. Lily mumbled something again, before nodding slightly.

James didn't say anything at first. After all these years, after all this waiting and all the times he'd asked her, after all the times she'd turned him down. After all of that, when she finally was the one asking him, he was seriously considering yes or no.

"I need to know something" he said, letting go of her hand. Lily felt like crying again, her hand felt cold now that he wasn't holding it.

"Sure" she managed to utter.

"LM" he said. "Who is LM?"

Lily needed a minute to think, before it occurred to her what he meant.

"You've… you've…"

"Wish number one – Go on a date with LM" said James, dreading the answer.

Not able to hold back her tears anymore, Lily turned around to breathe.

"The list, yes. I remember it now! …Do you know Cheyenne?" she asked him, still not facing him.

"Yes, I know her. Why?"

"You're Little Marauder, remember?"

James mentally slapped himself for not thinking that same thought before.

"What about Malfoy, then?"

"I never could stand him" said Lily. She was shifting nervously, still not facing him.

James could no longer stand it, and walked around her so that he could look her in the eye, but she held her head low, looking at her feet. Finally she looked up, and their eyes met. Her emerald green eyes were gleaming with tears, and James realized he could never say no to her.

"You're sure you won't just blow me off again, then?" he asked, and finally she smiled. He felt like all his insides melted at the sight of her sweet smile.

"I'm sure" she said, "I know I've been horrible to you, and I'm sorry. I just, I never thought you actually liked me, and then when I understood you actually did it was too late, so I convinced myself I didn't like you, still I did, and I… I don't know…"

James stopped her rambling by a sweet kiss, after which they were both fairly red. But James still had something he needed to say, and he couldn't wait any longer.

"I love you, Lily. Always have, always will!" 


End file.
